German 1941 GC - normal - Finished (DV - T56)

[karonagames]

BTW, when should I start to dig in for the winter, around now?

CharonJr

edit: phrased that poorly, I mean buying fortifications as a 2nd line of defense.

Now you are at the Kursk/Kharkhov/Belgorod line, you may want to think of that as being where you want to start 1942 and act accordingly. I think the jury is out on the return on investment in the forts, but I've always been a go for broke and retreat to the historical start line player rather than a digger. I have seen the AI break lvl4 fortifications so if you set your defensive line behind historical and it breaks you will have more ground to recover in 1942.

Horses for courses. Swings and roundabouts.

edit: but you have Leningrad so you are ahead of the game.

[CharonJr]

We will see how long it will take to really get Leningrad

The Finns are only fully released (able to attack) once Leningrad is captured, right?

But being able to move Finnish units into defensive positions for the winter will be a huge help (I hope).

CharonJr

[karonagames]

Once it is isolated you can clean Leningrad up in a couple of turns - avoid the urban hexes initially- hook around to the right.

Yes once Leningrad is captured the Finns are released, and can anchor your northern flank during the blizzard. In turn this will give you plenty of reserves for the rest of the army that should see you through the blizzard, and allow you to keep the Rumanians and Panzers out of the front line for most of the blizzard turns.

You also need to look at your rail grid to ensure that the rail heads are where you want them to refit divisions and rotate them them in and out of the front lines. You may also want to build some lateral branch lines, to help reserves move north-south.

[CharonJr]

T11 follow-up:

Romanian General Vasile Atanasiu is KIA and replaced by Constantin Pantazi, who is actually the slightly better commander.

11 additional units surrendered (76k men, 1k guns), even fewer units left in the pockets

In addition I assigned 9th Army to AGN from AGC, bringing AGN a bit above its command level (101:96 - AGC is at 106:96 now).

Next I Corps is assigned to OKH, bringing AGN down to 93:96 and 18th Army to 20:24.

AGS is still at 117:96 and will be taken care of later.

Grrr, and I have forgotten to set %-to fly back to 90%, Göring will not like this one...


T12 north:

Well, as expected I will need the 3rd port to isolate Leningrad.

The Soviets only managed to put 4 divisions in my way towards linking up with the Finns and with 2 deliberate attacks I was able to force all of them to either retreat (3) or rout (1).

36th Mot moves in to clear the fort and further displace 2 of the defenders that have been forced to retreat earlier, but is failing to do so.

A Finnish infantry division moves into Sviritsa and Leningrad should become isolated during the next turn.

8th Panzer is breaking up the Soviet lines to the west of Vyshny Volochek and parts of LVII Panzer (heading south for some rest) move in, but the town is fairly heavily defended. But mainly I wanted the rail here anyway, my repair unit is fairly close already.

Velikie Luki is taken and more AGN infantry replaces AGC units along the frontline to the west of Moscow.

There appears to be a gap in the Soviet line between Rzhev and Vyazma which is widened and I start to pour some infantry in. Rzhev is surrounded.

[CharonJr]

T12 center:

Infantry replaces XXXXVII Panzer at the front to the west of Tula and the Panzer is moved back for some rest.

As expected the "pocket" around Kharkov was broken, but without any real problems Belgorod and Kharkov are captured and 4 Soviet units encircled.

The defenders of Poltava manage to offer some resistance due to their lvl3 fort and repel 2 deliberate attacks (fort reduced to 1).

[CharonJr]

T12 south:

Dnepropetrovsk's defenders are forced to retreat and Zaporozhye is taken without any resistance.

The defenses at the Krim are fairly formidable, actually it might be difficult even for XXXIV Korps to break through here.

After being replaced by infantry XXXXVIII Panzer moves back for some rest as well as III Panzer while XIV Panzer takes a rest south of Kursk. With the whole of 1st Panzergruppe resting for now I plan to use them in my move to Stalino soon - Rostov is still on my target list, even if I will not be able to keep it during the winter.

[CharonJr]

T12 results:

27 units destroyed this turn, mainly from pockets feel OK, but next turn the crushing of the Leningrad pocket should start which should put a further dent into Soviet manpower.

They lost about 200k men last turn and about 2k guns while Germany lost about 4k men.

I am starting to build some fortifications this turn - first along the southern part of the Dnepr, but more will floow once I have cleared out some additional areas along rivers.

I am currently still thinking about where/if I should start moving my planes around Leningrad - basically I have no idea how long/well the defenders will be supplied by Leningrad itself and if I still need some planes around.

In the south I will probably move the airbases closer to Stalino.

[CharonJr]

T12 follow-up:

8 additional units surrendered - 84k men, 1.9k guns, 0.2 AFV.

Hermann Geyer is dismissed (6:5) and Kurt Chevallerie takes command of IX Korps which is actually a good deal.


T13 north:

Reduction of the Leningrad pocket is started, mainly using deliberate attacks vs. high defense units/fortifications while using hasty attacks for easier targets.

At the end Germany lost 11k men and 0.2k guns, while the Soviets lost 33 units with 246k men and 2.4k guns.

The Soviet front in the east is penetrated, I hope that this might cause them to move back since I want to gain some ground here fast in order to set up defensive positions for the winter.

At the Moscow front I start to slowly push east with some light fighting, some infantry divisions have already gotten within 80 miles.

[CharonJr]

T13 center:

West of Voronezh infantry starts to break up the Soviet line while the Romanian Cav Korps moves back for a little rest.

A couple of attacks are launched aroud Kaluga in order to start pushing the Soviets back behind the river (I want fortifications here).

[CharonJr]

T13 south:

With heavy bomber support the defenders of the Krim are forced to retreat from their fortified positions by XXXIV Korps.

XXXXVIII Panzer moves a bit south for its attack on Stalino next turn and XIV Panzer moves to the south as well.

Essentially all Romanian infantry units are withdrawn from to front to serve as security units in the rear, no need to waste them at the frontlines for the winter and I need to guard a lot of cities vs. partisans anyway.

[CharonJr]

T13 results:

Except for some infantry pushes I mainly moved my armor a bit to the rear to rest up for attacks on the next turn.

With the fairly easy gains in the south I think that on the one hand the Soviets are starting to really feel their losses and on the other hand they seem to focus their defense around Moscow for now.

With a total of 440k men, 4.8k guns and 0.2k AFV lost I doubt that Stalin will be very happy about this turns results. For the first time the Wehrmacht is ahead of the Red Army in every branch but planes.

Despite Moscow not being on my list of objectives for this season I am tempted to keep on pressing for some more turns.

1. I might pocket even more troops which should hurt the Soviet counteroffensive during the winter.

2. While the Soviets care about Moscow I should have an easier time in other areas.

3. It might not be completely impossible to take Moscow and with Fiinish defenders I am not sure if I will not be able to keep it.

Any comment/ideas - especially concerning my ideas about Moscow, but everything is welcome?

[randallw]

That's a very nice haul of dead Russian divisions.

[Klydon]

Nice job so far. Unfortunately the Finns won't be able to help you with Moscow since they can't get that far south. However, you may consider where your mountain units are at and what you plan on doing with them for the winter. If you make a big push on Moscow and want to try to hold it, you may want to redeploy the mountain units to the center. 

[CharonJr]

Yup, read up about the Finnish forces in the manual, I would need MTNs there.

I think I will put up a screenshot of Moscow with my available units up for discussion before doing my next turn.

At them moment I tend to go for it, but somehow this does feel wrong (maybe since I explitly did not make Moscow an objective for the frist season) and I would love to hear opinions based on the current situation.

CharonJr

[jjdenver]

I think you need to start again with a higher difficulty level because I think you've about put paid to the Reds in this one. Nice job.

[CharonJr]

T13 follow-up:

9 units with 95k men, 1.5k guns and 0.2k AFVs surrendered.


T14 north:

The Leningrad pocket is further compressed - 25 additional units with 223k men, 2.2k guns and 0.3k AFV are lost, with Germany losing 11k men and 0.2k guns.

It seems like the Soviets are trying to build establish a salient to the east of Leningrad, I will try to cut this off and start to get infantry into position.But in the meantime I invite them to come in further

LVI is slowly gathered together again and will play a major role in the push.

XXXIX Panzer is rested and moves closer to the front for a thrust of its own around Moscow.

3 Soviet divisions, including 1 tank are trapped between Rzhev and Moscow.

60 miles to Moscow for the leading infantry divisions.

[CharonJr]

T14 center:

With the infantry slowly pushing closer to Moscow LVII Panzer is moved into position for a thrust.

Around Kaluga the Soviets are pushed to the other side of the river again.

Infantry continues it advance towards Voronezh and unless the Soviets pull back their fairly well defended line along the Oka I will try to encircle them next turn and isolate Tula as well. XII Panzer is moved a bit to the north and XXIV Panzer to the east in preparation.

[CharonJr]

T14 south:

After initial infantry advances XXXXVIII Panzer rushes forward and surrounds Stalino and cuts off the units to the SW of it.

Another small pocket is created to the north of Stalino, but unlikely to hold.

III Panzer is brought into position to support a push on Rostov, my last remaining target for this season. XIV Panzer is moved a bit to the SE, too.

After a heavy air supported attack on the defenders in the swamp around the river Chatyrlyk failed I decide to try to cut those off before attacking them again.

[CharonJr]

T14 results:

The Soviets continue to feel the pain and it isnt over yet.

The Red Army lost another 200k soldiers since the last turn in contrast to the Wehrmacht's 10k. In addition they lost a large number of guns (2.5k) and AFVs (0.7k).

I have no idea what a reasonable number of Soviet casualties is at this point, but from the lack of resistance I see in some areas it feels like a good number. At least on paper 14:1 looks good.

My last objective for this season - Rostov - is in sight. I am not sure about what the winter will do in the south (have to read the manual about this), but being able to take and keep Rostov would surely be since for next seasons drive towards the oilfields.

[karonagames]

Just one piece of advice - double check that your railheads can supply AGS when the mud hits. When I got beyond the line you are at now AGS was isolated from supply when the Mud arrived.

Mud adds +4 to movement costs, so anything that is 25+ mps from the railhead in clear weather will be isolated when the mud arrives.