Case Blue: Keunert(Soviets) vs Olivier(Axis), no Olivier

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

To watch the replay is really hard. better drink a beer or two before doing so. Here is a typical example. Olivier first does some air recons behind my line. the idea is to attract my fighters on interception and battle them. after this he does airstrikes on almost all units he plans to attack. he usually attacks with only one divebomber/lvlbomber unit per hex. the airstrike is followed up by an artillery barrage.

in this example he attacks a hex defended by an infantry and a cavalry unit. His attack is one sided (!), his units don't take any damage at all and both soviet units are wiped out. i need another drink.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

This turn the axis started to attack the huge pocket. once again with my units out of supply and HQ range he was able to kill them off without losses. My units suffered 26'000 men, half of it in the pocket the other half by other attacks.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

We got another 2700 men replacements, one infantry division and two tank brigades. Maybe 7500 men in all.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

On average we lose 24'000 infantry men a turn.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

The fighter units should consist of 120 fighters on average. After my disastrous airwar we currently have 36 operational planes / unit. this combined with readiness and ap penalties led me to take them out of the frontline to give them some rest.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

The situation of my infantry divisions is slightly better, but still far from good. their artillery and at equipment is at 50%, infantry is at 50% too.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

Here the HQ unit and commander of the 5th TA: this HQ did benefit of most HQ personnel reshuffle cards. with 74% this is my best HQ. Liziukov is probably my best commander too, he gets three command points per round and has a good audacity level. Nevertheless this seems to be my most troubled army. it has organizational problems since the start of the axis advance.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

And here what happens to the units: organizational problems reduce offensive and defensive by 25%. i did try to attack with those, supported by an attack card: the result was frustrating.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

North

The pocket is under attack. Olivier waited one turn until the supply penalties makes his attacks easier. A newly available guard inf. div. took position in Voronezh. Stavka ordered me to hold the city for another two weeks! No way this will happen. I think the order is worth 14PP, i currently have 12. if i understand the dismissal rule correct the loss of Voronezh will likely result in me having to resign and going to a very cold place.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

Center

The goal here is to reach the Don before the Panzers do. But if i won't be able to man the line behind the Don with fresh and entrenched units this line won't be worth a dime.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

Center South

Not much happening here.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

South

The transports from Sevastopol are starting to unload troops near Rostow. Sevastopol is still holding. But the next attack will take the city. My navy does recon along the coast. so far the 11th A seems still to be, at least in part, on the Krim. In front of Rostow only some heavy artillery units were sighted.

The axis tried to attack those ships. all they achieved were some downed HE-111. Olivier even put a bomber unit in a port city. a shore bombardment was able to destroy some more german planes.

After saving up command points, both CA (former Krim HQ) and 56A build two forts. we hope they will help us to hold on Rostow a little longer. Two infantry divisions from the Caucasus arrive and are assigned to the 51 A.

[Keunert]

July 8th 1942, turn 6

I finish this turn with the current state of our tank corps, more to worry about...

[Keunert]

To my surprise Stalin allowed me a holiday week in the mountains with my family.
The germans are informed and agree on a hold of all operations until i return.

We will continue this AAR next monday. i hope this AAR is as interesting to read as it is to play.
Olivier has been a hard opponend so far. at the moment i don't see how i will be able to slow him
down.

any advice and help is appreciated. (no spies needed though)

[kfmiller41]

great AAR, am watching this with great interest. It is playing out much more historically than I thought was possible and does seem to show all the problems both sides experienced, which is great to see. Now the question is can you hang on[:D]

[lycortas]

After the last picture i feel like playing a balalaika.
Excellent AAR, and i love all of the missions and cards and what not. Chrome is what WITE is missing.

Michael

[jjdenver]

if i understand the dismissal rule correct the loss of Voronezh will likely result in me having to resign and going to a very cold place.

I think I would not start a game with dismissal rule turned on myself. It might be hard to balance this rule so I wouldn't trust it. Also how disappointing is it for the game to end because of this kind of rule when there is so much game investment already and so much game left to be played? It's a bit silly I think. Soviet commanders were sacked all the time but the war didn't stop and the war didn't end. Both sides suffered catastrophic disasters over and over and over yet the war went on. In the game if you want to treat it as an RPG (which it's not) playing Zhukov or STAVKA and those 2 institutions never stopped ticking during the war. For me I'm playing out the campaign not rolling a character to play like an RPG - I want to see the campaign play out. I'm not one guy. And even if that is the aim of the game it doesn't do a good job of making you feel like you are one guy - which guy are you even?

So I see no sense in the dismissal rule and wouldn't ever start a game with it turned on.

I'd be very very disappointed to see this excellent AAR and all the time you've invested end because of a stupid option like this. This campaign is far from over and the Soviets historically suffered catastrophic losses during this period. I really want to see how the winter and spring play out. Both sides should always have a chance to regroup and recover.

If this optional rule is not used then the players still have motivation to follow Stalin's directives because there are PP's to be gained and lost and those PP's can be very useful with the various cards that are available. This option to summarily end the game without player choice is frustrating to see.

[krupp_88mm]

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

if i understand the dismissal rule correct the loss of Voronezh will likely result in me having to resign and going to a very cold place.

So I see no sense in the dismissal rule and wouldn't ever start a game with it turned on.

What about if, instead of dismissal failing objectives would loose you permanent VP points plus prestige.

[bwheatley]

The Wikipedia SS division managed to encircle elements of the 339th and the

I almost spit soda out of my nose when i read that. Watch out for the Google SS division too. heh

[Keunert]

i am glad now that i never contributed money to those Vandals. I do hope that Zuckerberg joins our ranks, we desperately need more contributing friends.