Bish Bash Boche - A 41 GC JB (A) & Veterin (S)

[Veterin]

T8 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

5

5.png (1.31 MiB) Viewed 1246 times

By attacking the 1/6th infantry division first, we could lock down which hex it retreated to. Any retreating unit will prioritise going to a friendly hex that isn’t next to an enemy unit. The only hex it was going to retreat to (unless it was a rout) was directly west 1 hex.

6

6.png (1.35 MiB) Viewed 1246 times

The retreating infantry regiment is now in a hex with 3 units. Therefore, if I can defeat the 45th infantry division just north of it, it will retreat over a number of hexes as it has no where to move to and will take additional retreat losses in the process. With the help of a lot of VSS assets, I was lucky enough to just scrape through with a victory forcing the 45th to retreat 4 hexes south west. These spoiler attacks reduces the potency of the axis infantry overtime as they will have a harder time replacing men and material due to supply.

7

7.png (1.11 MiB) Viewed 1246 times

I decided to do a few suicide commando runs myself this turn and was able to isolate 6-7 divisions including many panzer elements. They are too strong for me to attack this turn as I don’t have many units in the area but this should help with slowing down their advance. I also flipped hexes back to my control where possible.

I didn’t get a screenshot of the south this turn but I’ve had to pull back in a number of areas. JB continues to move around my strong points and I cannot afford to have more units encircled. Poltava is abandoned with the 10th army to defensive positions around Kharkov. The 4th army with significant AFV assets has taken up a position north of Stalino. I have kept my forces on the west side of the river all grouped up to product each other which might be a mistake but I wanted the ability to counter attack If he advances quickly. The 9th army which was holding the Dnepre river has pulled back to Mariupol and the 12th army has fallen back from Kherson to Crimea. I haven’t made a decision yet on trying to hold Sevastopol but my hand might be forced due to VP concerns.

[jasonbroomer]

T9 Axis AGN

The soviets launch a counter attack, east of the Narva river which I am looking to take advantage of

T9 AGN Can we make the Soviets pay for these attacks.png (2.39 MiB) Viewed 1207 times

With a bit of thought I might be able to guide 4 Russian IDs into a nice pocket highlighted in red by pushing a motorised regiment along the blue line.

Step one:

T9 AGN First retreat it to here.png (2.13 MiB) Viewed 1207 times

Step two

T9 AGN second to here.png (3.32 MiB) Viewed 1207 times

[jasonbroomer]

T9 Axis AGN cont

T9 AGN well I screwed that up.png (3.25 MiB) Viewed 1203 times

Sadly, they escape east rather than south. I'm not sure if I had the MPs to block that escape route. But we bag one division as a consolation prize, hey-ho

T9 AGN consoliation.png (2.78 MiB) Viewed 1203 times

Meanwhile back to the main thrust. Model earns his pay with a 20 mile advance

T9 AGN Yup that's Model and a 20 mile advance.png (3.01 MiB) Viewed 1203 times

All in all, we made good progress this turn

T9 AGN Looking promising.png (2.57 MiB) Viewed 1203 times

[jasonbroomer]

T9 Axis AGN North

Who is this monkey?

T9 AGN Rudolf Schmidt gets killed and replaced by this numpty.png (2.92 MiB) Viewed 1200 times

Ah, I see in the commander report that I lost Rudolf Schmidt (Vet managed to kill him on t6 see earlier in the ARR). Shame. Fehn isn't too bad, but his low admin and initiative is causing his key motorised column to lose MPs each turn. He's also been unlucky in battles - as Napoleon said, I don't want unlucky generals. Unfortunately, he has a high political rating making him expensive to fire. Oh well, I'll just have to put up with him.

T9 Axis AGC



After a bit of manoeuvring NE of Smolensk, we just fail to make an expensive rout and encirclement. Vaututin probably swung the balance in the Soviets favour. Vet has done a good job getting his best generals into play. Now how can I kill him..?

T9 AGC just failed to make a juicy rout.png (3.05 MiB) Viewed 1200 times

We clear up the pocketed Russians but this was a disappointing turn for 3rd Panzer

T9 AGC 3rd Pz disappointing.png (2.13 MiB) Viewed 1200 times

[jasonbroomer]

T9 Axis AGS

Hmm, very irritating for 2nd Pz. Very careless of me to allow this but I had concerns about a counter offensive

T9 AGCS irritating spam cavalry.png (1.29 MiB) Viewed 1190 times

I guess we will have to pause again but at least it gives our supplies and infantry a chance to catch up

T9 AGC Another pause for 2nd Pz.png (1.5 MiB) Viewed 1192 times

2nd Army is still based in Poland, max supplying and CPPing units before railing them to the front. Doing this will hopefully relax the pressure on our stretched supply lines, without compromising the offensive much. AGN must have first call on reinforcements as if we don't take Leningrad this year, we will all most certainly lose the war. Thus I would rather over reinforce this sector than under reinforce. However, this leaves AGC under powered. Perhaps I should have pressed on with 2nd Pz this turn and just routed away the cavalry, but I feel that it is vulnerable given the lack of supporting divisions. I am pressing hard in the north and south. I can't really be pressing too hard in the centre as well

T9 2nd Army still in Poland building supplies in troops and CPP, these units will be gradually railed to the front.png (1.97 MiB) Viewed 1192 times

Note that I have left many depots on priority 4. This game I spammed Poland with depots early on and left them to fill up. These stockpiles are released when required and then refilled again. It seems to be working well and while the front is as short on supply at this stage as ever, I am confident that later in the game my supply resources will be strong.

We are playing with unlocked TBs, so I immediately switched the 2 RADs from Norway on turn 1. I also broke off the excessive number of RADs in my FDBs to gain an extra 2 RADs. This means that every 10 turns I gain an extra 40 rail repair hexes. Very nice . I am also using low grade generals to command the RADs in hopefully the most productive areas.

[jasonbroomer]

t9 Axis AGS

T9 AGS D and Z town undefended.png (1.85 MiB) Viewed 1186 times

To my surprise D'town and Z'city were more or less surrendered to me. I'm delighted by this and 1st Pz will make hay while the sun shines. At some stage, the Russians will make a line so I have to be cautious about over extending these formations.


The lack of opposition means that my FDB is racing along, here you can see it east of Kirovograd. You can also see a panzer regiment being railed back to the front after an unfortunate mishap earlier in the game. Now it is fully repaired and supplied and will refresh its brother units when it is recombined.

T9 AGS 1st Pz.png (2.51 MiB) Viewed 1185 times

In the south, a strong corps is peeled off from 1st Pz to open the door to the Crimea. 11th Army is making good advances with high CPP divisions in the vanguard. Lower CPP divisions are resting around Odessa and these can be ferried to the Crimea when required.

T9 AGS 1st Pz Corps heads towards Crimea.png (1.89 MiB) Viewed 1186 times

[Veterin]

T9 - Soviet Perspective

1

1.png (1.67 MiB) Viewed 1132 times

The AGN advance continues along a narrow path of lightly wooded terrain so it’s difficult to stop. If I am unable to attack the spearhead this turn (and that’s unlikely given the high CVs here), I think I will need to pull back both army groups west of their advance otherwise they will be cut off and isolated shortly.

2

2.png (1.29 MiB) Viewed 1132 times

The slow grind towards Moscow continues by AGC. Interestingly JB has started using heavy GS on all AGN/AGC attacks this turn whereas up to this point, they have been lightly used. Both the VSS and LW are in great shape.

3

3.png (739.41 KiB) Viewed 1132 times

A lucky hold by Vatutin has saved one of my rifle divisions from an encirclement and inflicted 21 AFV losses in the process.

4

4.png (454.65 KiB) Viewed 1132 times

All my Kamikaze Calvary runs from last turn have been locked down, some would say excessively so. This may present an opportunity where I can sacrifice Calvary for time if JB is going to commit so many units to ensuring they don’t advance further.

[Veterin]

T9 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

5

5.png (128.52 KiB) Viewed 1131 times

Weather for the next 2 turns will be favourable as there is light rain across most of the AGN/AGC front along with the associated light mud. Light mud isn’t a large debuff in terms of attacking or supplying but I’ll take every bit of assistance I can get.

6

6.png (1.13 MiB) Viewed 1131 times

As AGS advance into the Crimea, a large part of their supply comes from the black sea ports that they’ve captured. Kherson fell ~2 turns ago and Odessa and Nikolaev would have repaired ports by now bringing in significant supply. I decided to try naval indirect the gulf of Odessa cutting of the 4 axis-controlled ports north of it. I believe cargo freight can still get through these waters to the port but they faced an increased chance of being destroyed as I control hexes it needs to cross.

7

7.png (489.55 KiB) Viewed 1131 times

A counter attack is made on 6th panzer division which was the tip of the spear heading towards Leningrad. To ensure success on this attack, I surrounded the unit on 5 hexes with 3 units on each for a massed attack. Similar to last turn, the only hex this unit could retreat into already had 3 units so a further displacement move was made creating additional retreat losses. In addition to 65 destroyed AFVs, there were a large number of damaged elements too. Over this land battle, the LW and VSS fought it out with predictable results – the slaughter of VSS. One BF109F-2 scored 12 kills in this singe battle. That being said, I am still happy with the VSS performance as they performed their role in disrupting a large number of elements prior to the battle commencing (see the last column – disrupted AIR)

8

8.png (491.05 KiB) Viewed 1131 times

Another large battle, this one near Yelnya. I attached MG battalions to my higher CV infantry this turn to give me all the extra firepower I could get. For this battle I committed 2 tank divisions, 1 mechanised division and a number of infantry divisions. I’ve had the tanks/mechanised divisions sitting pack for a number of turns building up TOE/CV for counterattacks like this. In true soviet fashion, they are a 1 hit wonder and their TOE/CV is severely depleted after these attacks.

[Veterin]

T9 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

9

9.png (1.67 MiB) Viewed 1130 times

10

10.png (1.94 MiB) Viewed 1130 times

AGC front defence is fairly weak. I have not been able to wear down JBs units here as he continues to bypass any strongpoint I make and I need to keep retreating or I’ll be encircled. I’m fairly confident Stalino, Kharkov and Krusk will all fall in 1941.

[Veterin]

T9 Soviet Perspective Cont...

11

11.png (234.22 KiB) Viewed 1129 times

12

12.png (162.33 KiB) Viewed 1129 times

13

13.png (276.38 KiB) Viewed 1129 times

OOB and losses at the end of my turn 9. I’m happy with how I’ve kept his AFV numbers down however my manpower is still below 3m which is not a good sign at this stage of the game. I have ~300k reserves of infantry that I will deploy to the map next turn (they arrived to my reserve TB this turn). A big turn for AFV losses on both sides along with heavy soviet manpower losses approaching 1.7m Nothing too exciting on air losses as the LW has been relatively passive so far with the exception of this turn. I suspect that the LW will be used more heavily going forward. The VSS is also in fairly good shape however that won’t last long as I will continue to use it on key counterattacks.

[Seminole]

My Hs 126 Storch recon planes have taken a hammering. They always do, but losses this game have surpassed the last. I have experimented with flying them at 22,000 feet, I shall revert back to my normal 4,000ft. This is just below the AA minimum range (and above 3,000ft max range for ground troops), the skill of the German pilots should limit operational losses from flying so low. My strategic recon, which I husband more carefully, will remain at high altitude, which it is better suited to (I hope).

22k feet?
They had oxygen masks in the Storch?!?

It shouldn't be allowed to fly over 15k...

I suppose this is how those minor changes make it into every update.

[Jango32]

The Hs 126 is not the Storch.

[jasonbroomer]

The Hs 126 is not the Storch.

Is it not, I stand corrected. It was a complete guess based on its looks.

[jasonbroomer]

T10 Axis AGN

We suffer a reversal in the north as the Russian launch a massive counter attack

t10 AGN huge Soviet counter attack.png (3.58 MiB) Viewed 1054 times

We take out a lot of tanks but our stukas do absolutely nothing against such a target rich environment. Despite our fighters hammering the VVS, it is their bombers that do the damage. Is this WAD? Am I doing something wrong here?

t10 AGN I killed a lot of tanks but my stukas did absolutely nothing despite the carnage in the air 2.png (996.59 KiB) Viewed 1054 times

t10 AGN I killed a lot of tanks but my stukas did absolutely nothing despite the carnage in the air.png (1.02 MiB) Viewed 1054 times

[jasonbroomer]

t10 Axis AGN Cont

Frustratingly, light mud is in some key attacking hexes. Do I attack now and burn precious CPP at 75% effectiveness or hope that next turn is better. It also slows me down, which limits my attempts to capitalise on victories. Such are the woes of a northern axis advance and we are forced to press on

Sadly, next weeks weather is more of the same

t10 AGN raining again and more is forecast, I hope this is sign of global warming and winter is decent.png (850.46 KiB) Viewed 1051 times

I hope that this is a consequence of global warming from all those burning Russian tanks and that winter will be nice and mild

Yet again General Fehn let's us down

t10 AGN Fehn is utterly useless.png (2.55 MiB) Viewed 1051 times

I can't fire him, so I begin to divest him of his troops and I will reassign him to a less crucial sector. Hopefully under an army commander with a huge political rating so we can fire him formally.

t10 AGN I cant afford to fire him so take his toys away.png (2.21 MiB) Viewed 1051 times

Despite these issues, we continue to make steady progress in the sector

t10 AGN.png (2.98 MiB) Viewed 1045 times

[jasonbroomer]

T10 Axis AGC

A huge counterattack which sends my panzers reeling. I am dumbfounded that the Soviets can muster such offensive capabilities.

t10 AGC huge Soviet counter attack. ccan't belive that he pushed me back here.png (1.97 MiB) Viewed 1042 times

Once again my stukas did absolutely nothing! I don't mind losing attacks 1.9:1 or even suffering defensive battle at 2.2:1 but it is very frustrating that things that could turn the balance in your favour don't seem to work.

t10 AGC I killed a lot of tanks but my stukas did absolutely nothing despite the carnage in the air.png (1.03 MiB) Viewed 1042 times

12th Panzer is left with a headache banging like a headboard in a Berlin brothel.

t10 AGC some of the panzer divisions are getting terribly beaten up.png (802.07 KiB) Viewed 1042 times

They'll now have to be sent off to the Cote D'Azur

[jasonbroomer]

T10 Axis AGC Centre cont

Sadly the mud has come this far south as well

t10 AGCMud prevents me counterattacking SU offensive so head up road.png (2.95 MiB) Viewed 1007 times

Not only do the Russians pack a punch, they seem to be agile enough to keep away from any remedial action. Those two Russian RD sitting in the marshes are a real nuisance and stops me getting anywhere near the attacking Soviet units. It is so irritating that I just failed to dislodge them last turn, if I had taken the northern of the two hexes last turn, it would have greatly diminished the size of the counterattack this turn. Just goes to show how a marginal situation can have material consequences. It's one of the many great features of this game system.

We make some counter attacks, but I fear not enough

t10 AGC.png (2.75 MiB) Viewed 1033 times

[jasonbroomer]

T10 Axis AGS

In the south our creaking supply lines mean that we begin to slow our advance

t10 AGS advance in south can slow with supplies catch up.png (2.04 MiB) Viewed 1021 times

This allows us the time for some entertainment, Cossack swatting and eviscerating spam airborne units.

t10 AGS Nothing better than a cavalry unit wiping an airborne unit from face of earth.png (3.04 MiB) Viewed 1021 times

t10 AGS This is how to deal with pesky Cv.png (2.37 MiB) Viewed 1021 times

[jasonbroomer]

T10 Stats

We continue to meet our target of 100k Russians a turn. However, I would be hoping for an occasional big pay day, steady attrition is good but we need the occasional major rampage. Vet has done a great job in protecting him units and now counterattacking to slow my advance down.

t10 manpower losses.png (646.11 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

as a result, Soviet presence on the map is not falling and about to jump as more reserves are released.

t10 OOB trends.png (687.75 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

t10 OOB.png (727.94 KiB) Viewed 1018 times

[Jango32]

It's a well known fact that the Luftwaffe's bombers in the game are a massive letdown. Actually damaging and destroying ground elements on top of causing disruption is something the VVS excels at while the Luftwaffe struggles to disrupt elements most of the time.

The only thing I can think of that may improve Stuka performance (level bombers are hopeless no matter what) is fiddling around with ground support altitude and their individual loadout.