Twig's War (Twigster Axis, thedoctorking Soviet)

[Twigster]

End of Axis Turn 9.

AGN area. Highlights here this week were heavy air activity, and the fall of Pushkin and Novgorod. Sorry to disappoint sports fans, but no eastward drive in this area this turn. Focusing on Leningrad. Would just like to add that, with sufficient artillery support, even forts erected by the Victorious Red Army(TM) become not much of a problem. See next.

[Twigster]

The Battle of Pushkin. Luftwaffe conducted liberal very heavy airstrikes and there was no shortage of artillery support. So far, enemy Fort 4s have proven to be not even speed bumps.

[Twigster]

AGC.

Just minor attacks here, still organizing the front. Luftwaffe conducted no air attacks in this area this turn. This part of the Soviet Union is nice this time of year, so long as you don't mind mosquitoes and flies the size of Stukas.

[Twigster]

Detail of Smolensk sector. Notice the limited offensive by 2PG- yes, they were trying to overrun the enemy HQ unit. The Soviets are digging in here; and why not? They have the time to do it.

[Twigster]

Battle of Kiev in progress. The city really is defended by a lot of strong enemy units. This promises to be bloody. 1PG is trying to ring the city, primarily to secure advantageous assault positions for the infantry when it catches up fully. Secondary objectives are to cut the city off from further reinforcement from the Marshes and further south.

[Twigster]

AGS.

Some minor attacks here but mostly quiet.

[Twigster]

Turn 9 losses. It's been a very low-intensity week if you are not in Leningrad or Kiev.

[Twigster]

End of Axis turn 9 air losses. I am surprised at my rather low airframe losses this week, given my heavy and extensive bombing and airstrikes. It would be nice to be able to maintain a steady 4-1 kill ratio for some time...

[thedoctorking]

German turn 9 featured a continuation of the previous turn’s offensive in the north. German armor reached the city of Leningrad and punched into the southern suburbs (Pushkin) with repeated attacks. The city remains connected over one hex by land to the outside world. The units in the hills to the southwest of the city were cut off by land but luckily their pocket contains a port and so they remained in supply. A few divisions were able to evacuate over the bay to Leningrad itself and bolster the defense of the city. Northern Front is fighting to preserve the lifeline to the city and make the German conquest there as time-consuming and expensive as possible. The Hitlerites will regret attacking the city of the founder of Bolshevism!

In this sector, German air forces have been very aggressive, but their losses appear high. My best air commander is in charge of the Northern Front Air Army.

[thedoctorking]

In the central theater, the German attack axis shifted to the south of Smolensk in 3rd Army’s sector. German armor stuck a thumb into our position, encountering the reserve forces of 54th Army behind the Desna. Powerful forces remain in this sector, though all three Western Front armies suffer from high levels of fatigue and declining TOE’s. Hopefully the German armor is in the same condition. I’ve formed a checkerboard defense in front of Bryansk in case there’s a breakthrough in that sector. Inerestingly, the anticipated southern prong of this attack did not develop, and recon has lost sight of that armored corps. I wonder where they are? No doubt, they will appear somewhere soon.

The area in front of battered Northwest Sector has stabilized, with no attacks whatsoever up there. This is a relief for those boys and an opportunity for them to rebuild their TOEs and restore morale in advance of the next fascist push. Reserve front has taken a significant sector now across the land bridge. South of the Oster, Bryansk Front and its reserve army, the 50th, are facing scattered German infantry and giving ground slowly.

Western Front’s air power has been doing the most work for the last couple of turns. As a result, they are fatigued and taking lots of losses. I pulled the bases back a few more hexes and sent a bunch more units to Reserve, keeping only enough air units to present a credible defense.

[thedoctorking]

In the southern sector, German armor has now arrived at the outskirts of Kiev and is facing deeply dug-in (fort level 3) Russian defenses. I am reasonably confident in this sector. I don’t expect to hold Kiev for the long term. However, I do expect that German losses will be high and the fight will be time-consuming. If they manage to get across the Dnepr to the south of the city, I will have a decision to make. For now, though, I do like the way I’ve been able to use urban strongpoints to slow the German advance.

[thedoctorking]

I did a counter-attack in the south, outside Kiev, against a lone Panzer Division with a reported defensive CV of 10. I got a 2:1 against it and drove it back, but at horrendous loss. You’ve got to wonder about this: how can it be a victory if they kill 50 times as many of us as we do of them? And what about retreat losses? I thought when you ran, especially (as in this case) through an enemy ZOC, you took extra losses?

[thedoctorking]

In the comments on turn before last’s AAR, somebody asked for the losses and OOB data, so here they are as of the end of my turn:

Ground losses:

[thedoctorking]

Air losses:

[thedoctorking]

OOB screen

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking

Air losses:

Do you by chance have any Snap shots of the air battles where you inflicted German fighter loses? Were they night bombings with high fighter losses by chance?

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Twigster

AGS.

Some minor attacks here but mostly quiet.

No offense here but in the south you need to find a spot in the line you can break through and surround some of those units with German armor. Looks very very vulnerable to a penetration style attack with a follow up pinning in of those Soviet units. Instead of banging your head on the Kiev Fortifications imho. But that is just me.

You did it up North near Velikie Lukie which was very pretty. Do it down south and you will be able to unhinge Kiev without even fighting for it if done correctly.

[thedoctorking]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain


Do you by chance have any Snap shots of the air battles where you inflicted German fighter loses? Were they night bombings with high fighter losses by chance?

No, sorry. But the German fighter losses mostly came on interceptions of my bombing missions. I didn't do a lot of night bombing and for those that I did I didn't see any German interceptions. I did a couple of shots at German cities the first few turns and got shot up so I decided to lay off. Those IL-4's and TB-3's are precious! I use night bombing occasionally to attack hexes that seem too well protected during the day, especially the Axis railroad repair units (which are usually close to Axis airfields).

I'm assuming that Twigster has his fighters set to day missions only.

I think that German fighter losses are high because his pilots are heavily fatigued. He doesn't seem to be sending them back to reserve - this is unclear - or at least not fast enough to prevent fatigue. He has given up bombing my airfields for the time being.

[thedoctorking]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Twigster

AGS.

Some minor attacks here but mostly quiet.

No offense here but in the south you need to find a spot in the line you can break through and surround some of those units with German armor. Looks very very vulnerable to a penetration style attack with a follow up pinning in of those Soviet units. Instead of banging your head on the Kiev Fortifications imho. But that is just me.

You did it up North near Velikie Lukie which was very pretty. Do it down south and you will be able to unhinge Kiev without even fighting for it if done correctly.

I try to make this difficult for him by having a double or triple line in front of his armor stacks with a "checkerboard" style setup of reserve units behind. He's gotten through onto the checkerboard a couple of times but can only go four or five hexes max before running out of MP's. He was able to do it against Northwest Front because I was inattentive and didn't think he was sending his tanks northwards because there are no particular strategic objectives up there plus the terrain is full of swamps and hills. So there was no checkerboard behind the front. Also, he was able to achieve a breakthrough with his infantry.

[thedoctorking]

Also, if I bomb the heck out of his armored spearheads I think it reduces their MP's for the next turn.