Stock FitE Karri vs Larry

[Karri]

Turn done finally. I tried a little attack with the Turks, and they failed miserably...hopefully they'll tie down a unit or two.

Anyways, the first round of combat left me again with only 50% of turn left. Luckily I managed to squeeze in a few more rounds...3 or 4 more.

Bryansk is now almost encircled, and Larry seems to have used up all the reserves there. The reinforcements to his left wing(=my right wing=the eastern part of the battle) seems to have at the cost of the Center, since it practically gave up this turn. All that seems to be left is an endless horde of HQ units and Tank Brigades, which btw seem to be impossible to kill...most of this tank brigades are at strenghts of 1-1 or 2-2. Well, not most, but quite a portion.

I think I can get to Moscow...the question however is, how am I gonna drive the Soviets out of there? Seems like Larry has massed a 'few' army groups there.

[Karri]

Northern Pincer:

[Karri]

Southern Pincer:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet view of the minimap moves movie from turns 96 throu 100:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Soviet losses ( I'd be curious to know what the Axis losses are right about now ) :

[Telumar]

Wow - fortress Moscow with all-around defenses. Looks like Larry is fearing the worst. Very interesting development.

[larryfulkerson]

Not that it's going to make much difference, but, I blew a hole in the Finnish lines. Karri will probably fix that before I get another chance to move though.

[larryfulkerson]

And so the Battle For Moscow starts:

[Veers]

This is one exciting game. Good luck, Larry.
(I'll be cheering for you when Larry nears Moscow, Kari, gotta give it to the underdogs. )

[Karri]

The Soviet frontline has collapsed. The Soviet line running East/southeast from Leningrad is still safe, as is the Moscow 'Stronghold' but everything else is either engaged(meaning it canno't withdraw due to disengagement penalties, under attack, encircled or being encircled.

[Karri]

Notice the breakthrough in Dankov. Again, some luck and some skill. I had an infantry regiment, Soviets had a flak unit blocking the way...I tried my luck and right clicked that unit and by miracle it got destroyed...I moved some engineers to probe the area and to my surprise there was no one there. Also 2-3 turns ago I withdrew several armored formations to rest, and they just happened to be near this place and thus raced through the hole. This pretty much means that all enemy units east o that are doomed.

Now, during summer 1941 I made the mistake of not destroying pocketed units fast enough, this tied down a lot of my troops. Now I plan to wipe them out in 1-2 turns...but first I'll make sure they are not in supply in order to inflict maximum casualties.

Also worth noting is that there are only 2 active(rest have been cut) railroads that lead to Leningrad, and I plan to cut both.

[Karri]

Turns 90 to 101:

[Karri]

Here's the update on Axis losses:

[Karri]

The thing I use for strenght comparison is rifle squads for Soviets and Heavy Rifle squads for Axis. I stand at 33k HRS and Larry has(well had last turn) 36k Rifle squads. In other words we're pretty even.

Now if we look at Heavy Rifle, Rifle, light rifle and SMG squads as total it's about 54k squads for larry and about 64k squads for me. The minor axis are mostly making the difference. In the artillery I have no problems, well mortars etc. euipment that is given directly to infantry regiments has suffered high losses, but nothing I couldn't take. The artillery units(hq's, nebelwerfers etc arty) haven't suffered major losses. Tanks, well some losses but replacements are making up for them. Also worth noting is that the Stugs are arriving in good numbers to the front.

Now armored cars and similar, those I have in great amounts. Despite the fact that these are always giving the first punches.

Ships, who cares.

Airplanes...well what can I say...I mean, it makes no difference if they exist or not. I don't really do anything with luftwaffe anymore, most of the time they seem to be on a strike, protesting the use of ersatz coffee.


And back to rifle and heavy rifle squads. I have lost 63k HRS, or in other words twice what my standing army is.
Larry has lost about 176k rifle squads, or about 4-5 times his current army. But he is also gaining twice the number I am...all in all I think he has a slight disadvantage there.

According to the oob I have some 1300 units on the field...or 1200, can't remember.

[Jaylord14]

I'm just getting back to TOAW after several years and I find this AAR fascinating, exspecially the level of commitment (let alone free time!) needed to get this far , this fast with such a monster of a scenario.  [&o] I mostly play games with/as the Western Allies (I equally despise both Nazis and Commies [:@]), so I have a couple of questions/comments, especially for Larry.

1) There's been some discussion about interdiction vs. close support, but I don't recall you really commenting on it.  I understand the danger of the Luftwaffe setting up a fighter trap, but that's really only a problem when both sides have more or less parity in air strength.  Right now it appears that you have WAllies level air supremacy (not just superiority) and interdiction would seem to be far, far more effective.  This is not just a matter of killing more enemy squads/vehicles, that's just a relatively minor effect/bonus of interdiction strikes.  So what if they're not there as CS to help in a few (5%?? 10%??) of the attacks on of your crappy Inf divs?  They're going to get waxed anyway. You need to slow Karri down when he punches holes in your lines.  It's a historical fact that it is almost impossible to advance against a foe who has overwhelming air superiority and the means to smother the enemy with interdicting air power.  With most of your B/FB groups on interdiction near areas where Karri is trying to punch holes (he seems to typically take 2-4 turns to punch a hole in your lines, so you have time to rebase), when he does breakthrough the exploitation becomes much more dicey.  Because units get stopped, or slowed by strikes they get strung out, flanks are left vulnerable, counterattack opportunities multiply, etc.  It's like fighting the tarbaby (in the original, non-racist sense of the phrase [8|]). It's easy for his mobile units to get bogged down, and then get killed in a counter-attack.  Karri likes to fling his tank regts out into the blue when he punches a hole. I guess he knows he doesn't have to worry about interdiction so he can be bold. You must whale on exposed german armor whenever possible.  Which leads me to my second point...

2) It seems like most of your Tank/mobile units are strung out in very French-like penny packets all along the front.  [:-] I know you're stretched thin but wouldn't it be more effective to have these units concentrated in Shock armies that can, in conjunction with massive interdicting airpower, counter-attack and annihilate his armored spearheads once they're stung out and seperated from their infantry supports?  From playing many, many board games of Russian Campaign, Russian Front, DNO, etc. the Spring '42 mud is the time to pull the armor out of the line and husband it to strike at his armor when it invariably gets strung out.

Just some observations from someone who usually plays as the WAllies.  Please keep the rock throwing to a minimum. [:(]

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Jaylord14
...I have a couple of questions/comments, especially for Larry.

1) There's been some discussion about interdiction vs. close support, but I don't recall you really commenting on it.

So um......I've got my air dudes on 2/3 close air support and 1/3 on interdiction with a unit or two on air superiority. I feel like you do about interdiction and don't really count on the air units to do much in the way of helpful CAS.

ORIGINAL: Jaylord14
2) It seems like most of your Tank/mobile units are strung out in very French-like penny packets all along the front.

I'm strung out like a cat on a five-hole birdhouse trying to stop incursions left and right. Most of my arty can move faster than the other ground dudes so they get used more and more as the Axis dudes move in. I do however try to group them when possible so I can pursue / defend in force when the Axis dudes are toe-to-toe with me.

(3) It looks like Karri is going to spend a turn or two mopping up and allow me to pre-position my Moscow defenders....thanks Karri.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet view of the minimap moves movie for turns 97 thru 101

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the Soviet losses so far:

[Slayer_of_kings]

I would have preferred that the two German pincers encircle Moscow, but it looks like they are going to hit that ring with full force. Germans are going to take some nasty losses with that decision.

[Karri]

ORIGINAL: Slayer_of_kings

I would have preferred that the two German pincers encircle Moscow, but it looks like they are going to hit that ring with full force. Germans are going to take some nasty losses with that decision.

It doesn't matter what I lose if I capture Moscow. But anyways, don't believe everything you see, I plan to capture Moscow but when and how is open as of yet.