The Fourth Republic AAR

[desert]

Turn 145 - 6/6/42  Cont.
 
A catastrophic defeat SE of Tambov. The very worst of the war. Not only were we forced back towards the Don in many places, but the enemy surrounded the 5th Guards Tank Corps and most of the 4th Guards Tank Corps and forced their surrender. Worst of all, they lost almost nothing doing it.
 
Soviets - 430 squads, 34 tanks
French - 448 squads, 460 tanks (including 163 AMX-13s) 
 
A Croatian infantry corps is still trapped behind enemy lines.
 
 
 
 

[desert]

Turn 146 - 6/13/42

FRANCE: Time to reorganize my strategic formations. There's little more than a hodgepodge army left in the Caucasus, so AGS now covers all forces east of the Don, from Stalingrad to just south of Ryazan. AGC has the Moscow front, from Ryazan to Yaroslavl and the Rybinsk Reservoir. AGN is everything north of that, including the Finnish army.  Free and unlimited corps sharing between armies is permitted. That's been the de facto situation with the air force anyway, so all air assets should just support any of ours as best as possible.
 
The rout and surrender of much of AGS's armor and the overwhelming concentration of Soviet armor in the area led to a small withdrawal towards the Don.  
 
I'm pleased to report that the enemy is operating under a critical shortage of cavalry, SMGs, engineers, and support squads. They never have many rifle squads on hand either; most of the surplus goes towards reconstitutions.

ALLIES: The 3rd Guards Tank Corps blew open a path for the trapped Croatians, but it was too late; their 2 IC was crushed and the guardsmen only held open the corridor long enough for a short stream of tired and demoralized survivors to pass through.
 
The Romanian 1 IC, though disorganized, down to less than half-strength, and left out in the field by the French falling back to their new line, held off a huge Soviet horde 10 times its size for half a week, relieving the pressure on both AGS and AGC.
 
SE of Moscow, the Soviets attacked my tank corps without any armored support and paid for it. In corps.
 

[desert]

Turn 147 - 6/20/42

FRANCE: Soviet replacements go up 30%. Supply goes up by 35, meaning they're totally maxed out: 100 supply. However, US support has reached a "maximum", so I assume they won't be reinforcing the British with an army anytime soon.
 
Entire 3. Armee now in France.
 
The encirclement of Moscow is nearing completion. There's no supply point in the city!
 
Leningrad finally falls.
 
ALLIES: 1st Guards Tank Corps forced to abandon holding position N of Ryazan, is cut off very deep behind enemy lines.

[desert]

Turn 149 - 7/4/42

FRANCE: Baku falls.
 
Moscow has been cut off from supply. The 1st Guards TC's rout is the inadvertent cause. Now everyone's trying to get out of the city, and the perimeter fortifications have been left lightly guarded. This is it, all that matters is Moscow. The fact that 4 Soviet Guards armies show up next turn makes its capture all the more urgent. The city proper must fall. The two outer hexes were taken at very high cost to the puppet soldiers, who did most of the attacking.
 
ALLIES: The Soviet Baltic Fleet nearly committed suicide.
 


 

[desert]

Turn 150 - 7/11/42
 
FRANCE: Baku loss = -6 supply for Allies.

Battle of Moscow - all regular Soviet units have withdrawn from the city center, but the garrison is still mighty and well-fortified; after more than a thousand squads and 46 planes were lost, men of the French 26 IC and German 1 IC raised les couleurs over the Kremlin; the Soviets lost 165 planes and 2400 squads
 
With both Leningrad and Moscow in enemy hands, Stalin will surely see the futility of further resistance. Even 4 Guards armies cannot stop us now.

[desert]

Turn 151 - 7/18/42

FRANCE: No surrender yet. Maybe next turn. They must be emboldened by the fresh armies.

ALLIES: The French 26 IC was surrounded and rapidly destroyed.

The Italian 4 IC was overwhelmed and surrendered to the 2nd Guards Army SE of Stalingrad.

Swedes have crossed the Finnish border!

A Heavy Tank Corps surrounded.


[blockquote]
              New Soviet positions. Is this what they call defence in-depth? lol [/blockquote]

[desert]

Turn 152 - 7/25/42

 
The Soviets finally surrendered. After more than 8 months of hard fighting, the Bear has fallen. My armies have really been shredded. More men were lost in the war with the Soviets than in the conquest of all countries from Portugal to Turkey.
 
Allied supply -20.
 
About half my units will stay in the SU for pacification duties (clearing out the British reconstitutions). Some will move to eliminate Sweden and Norway. The rest will return for leave and prepare for the invasion of Britain. I have 1609 VPs, an overwhelming victory, so even if Britain survives I still win.
 
Comparative chart:
 

 
As you can see, I:

• Lost at least 2700 planes (4366:7141 or 62% higher)
• Lost 1300 tanks (466:1765 or 279% higher)
• Lost up to 1800 other AFVs (1062:2840 or 59% higher)
• Lost at least 6300 artillery pieces including AT, AA, but not SP (6117:12421 or 97% higher)
• Lost up to 38000 squads (35738:83422 or 94% higher)
• Have more men and materiel than before despite the losses (excepting rifle squads, cavalry, engineers, ships, and fighter aircraft)

[1_Lzard]

"Too bad I stink at battles of maneuver, eh?"
"My armies have really been shredded."
"Have more men and materiel than before despite the losses (desert)

What d'ya think, desert, good generalship or an old scenario? Looks like your doing fine to me, LOL!

[desert]

ORIGINAL: 1_Lzard

What d'ya think, desert, good generalship or an old scenario? Looks like your doing fine to me, LOL!

A-ha, but I'm not doing as well as I should be. Karri beat the Soviets in half the time, and certainly with fewer losses.

This AAR is now complete. France has conquered all of Europe and won an overwhelming victory against the Allied forces. Only the British, isolated on their fortified island, remain defiant.

I waited 38 turns. I fully occupied Russia. Caucasian oil boosted my supply by 12. I conquered Sweden and Norway and even sent a unit to Iceland.

Unfortunately, it seems 38 turns was not enough time for "French staff [to] prepare supply support for invasion of UK". With all the British reconstitutions returning to the island and the arrival of the huge armored 5th Army, I would have had an easier time just attacking before the Soviets were defeated.

Let's just say that I, the Emperor, died of natural causes on May 1st, 1943. The scenario is over for me. My son takes the reigns of the country and of the preparations for L'Opération Lion de Mer. Long live the Emperor!


Allies Losses (mine haven't risen significantly since T152, other than 1500-2000 planes and many ships lost in the Battle of Britain):



Invasion of Turkey & Soviet Union T116-152:



End:

[Karri]

Actually, I had much higher losses than you. Which is why I also conquered the Soviets faster. Uk was fairly easy, with the bottleneck being the shipping capability that allowed only 2-3 units to be transferred per turn.

[desert]

ORIGINAL: Karri

Uk was fairly easy, with the bottleneck being the shipping capability that allowed only 2-3 units to be transferred per turn.

Heh, checking the events, "preparations" for the invasion of Britain don't involve any increases in sea transport - I just get 3 supply points around Dover. Whoops.

[*Lava*]

Nice to see an AAR of my scenario.

The intent of the scenario was to present a starting situation which put a great amount of pressure on the player right from the start of the game. Germany was meant to be a hard nut to crack early on as Spain nibbled at your backside. I figured most folks would go head on with Germany right from the start and I think in retrospect I should have beefed them up a bit more than what you have in the scenario. Just to make it a little tougher.

Once you get got over Germany, Russia was meant to be the next hurdle, and you seemed to have handled that very nicely.

To finish out the scenario, the invasion of the UK was also meant to be a bit of struggle to gain a foothold. That is why sea transportation remained limited. This part of the scenario was devised to force the player to combine both air and sea transport to the maximum extent possible.

Seems you liked the scenario. I know for lots of vets around here it probably wasn't as challenging as they would have liked, but I'm not the best of scenario designers and overall I wanted the scenario to be beatable by most players.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the AAR... [:)]

Ray (alias Lava)

[*Lava*]

As a foot note...

From what I have read, which is not a whole lot, nobody has taken the optimum strategy to win the scenario.

But I guess it was too easy to force folks to find it.

Cheers and ta ta.

Ray (alias Lava)

[desert]

Rush the British on Turn 1?