2 frogs in mild blizzard (frogmarc welcome)

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:39 pm

ORIGINAL: loki100

very impressive - I'm surprised your supply lines haven't just collapsed ...

Railhead isn't that far behind and I received a lot of JU52

governato · Post by **governato** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:48 pm

very impressive - I'm surprised your supply lines haven't just collapsed ...

That is why I was asking about your trucks figures before!

I am puzzled that an offensive into the Caucasus, in the middle of Winter ..does use up all your tanks, but not your trucks? Surely all those French trucks captured in 1940 were totally awesome [:)] but this seems excessive (not your fault at all mind me).

The logistics engine of WITE is a bit of err...a mistery to me. So, if it is not too much trouble I was wondering if you had quarterly trucks figures for the past year that I could post in the developers forum as an example and draw their attention to the fact that truck attrition may be underestimated (mostly for WITW and WITE2).

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:51 pm

ORIGINAL: governato

very impressive - I'm surprised your supply lines haven't just collapsed ...

That is why I was asking about your trucks figures before!

I am puzzled that an offensive into the Caucasus, in the middle of Winter ..does use up all your tanks, but not your trucks? Surely all those French trucks captured in 1940 were totally awesome [:)] but this seems excessive (not your fault at all mind me).

The logistics engine of WITE is a bit of err...a mistery to me. So, if it is not too much trouble I was wondering if you had quarterly trucks figures for the past year that I could post in the developers forum as an example and draw their attention to the fact that truck attrition may be underestimated (mostly for WITW and WITE2).

I just sent my turn and forgot to print my trucks...

I think there should also be a relation between supply and distance. If I've well undertood, if the rail isn't cut, it's the same price to bring a ton of supply to Minsk or to Saratov. It shouldn't be so.

And about french trucks and cars captured in 1940 (or built later by french factories [:o] ) they weren't adapted to russian country. French roads were (and still are ) far better than russians.

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:03 pm

Below my special and motor pool on turn 92.

I should set some Inf in Static mode but it's not easy as I'm under pressure north of kalinin

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:12 pm

Turn 88, 18th february 1943,

Lot of russian and german reinforcemnts arriving...

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:46 pm

Turn 89, 25th february 1943

Sea, sex and sun on the Caspian sea!! [:)]

But some bad guys are coming from the north....

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:59 pm

Turn 90, 4th march 1943

The breakthrough to Bakou

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:19 pm

Turn 91,11th march 1943

Breakthrough in the South, several russian corps isolated.

Heavy fights near Terekli-Mekteb.

Baku is not far yet!!!

Cripes A Mighty · Post by **Cripes A Mighty** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:51 pm

Very entertaining AAR. Your progress is incredible. You have taken a huge amount of territory and mauled your enemy.

That being said, I think you are in grave trouble. Your momentum was a key factor in keeping him off balance, but your front along the Volga hasn't moved much in a while, and now you are running out of steam. You are on the verge of mud season with vast thinly-defended flanks. He will have time to recover, regroup, and strike. You simply don't have the manpower to defend your entire perimeter. If he can attack south from Penza and break through, he threatens to roll up your entire Volga front while the lions share of your mobile units that could best contain the damage are in the far-away Caucasus.

I would love to see a screenshot of your entire front, from the Baltic to the Caspian.

M60A3TTS · Post by **M60A3TTS** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:35 pm

Do you think anyone even knows where Baku is? The entire world doesn't care if we capture Baku or not.

- Heinz Guderian -

well he would have said it in these circumstances

rbrockman2 · Post by **rbrockman2** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:10 pm

The primary goal of the Germans is to isolate and kill groups of Russian units. What makes this doable is that for a long time there are always some Russians that are off by themselves and vulnerable: the Germans simply rail their mobile units to wherever the "victim" units are, surround them, and toast them. Killing Russian units thin the Russian lines, leading to more groups of vulnerable Russians that can be toasted next, etc.

From this perspective, the recent Crimean operation in this AAR was great because it toasted a bunch of Russian divisions while freeing up a bunch of Axis units to go rampage elsewhere.

Usually (historically), Axis advance into the Caucasus is a bad idea because it extends the Axis forces over a wide area capturing territory without allowing the capture of Russian units. The situation in this AAR is different: the Axis forces in the Eastern Caucasus have been allowed to outflank the Russians and drive down the Caspian. Am I correct in assuming that all the Russian units in the Caucasus depend on Baku for supply? If so, when the Axis reaches the southern map edge then a stack of Russian divisions are toast, regardless of how the defense of Baku itself goes. Note that the situation in the Caucasus has inexplicably lured a bunch of Guards units into tangling with the SS, in clear terrain, far away from anything the Russians need to defend, near a big body of water with no nearby ports. This doesn't seem very healthy for the Russians.

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:49 am

ORIGINAL: Cripes A Mighty

Very entertaining AAR. Your progress is incredible. You have taken a huge amount of territory and mauled your enemy.

That being said, I think you are in grave trouble. Your momentum was a key factor in keeping him off balance, but your front along the Volga hasn't moved much in a while, and now you are running out of steam. You are on the verge of mud season with vast thinly-defended flanks. He will have time to recover, regroup, and strike. You simply don't have the manpower to defend your entire perimeter. If he can attack south from Penza and break through, he threatens to roll up your entire Volga front while the lions share of your mobile units that could best contain the damage are in the far-away Caucasus.

I would love to see a screenshot of your entire front, from the Baltic to the Caspian.

The key point is the number of VP required.

If it had been a 260 VP game, I would never have done such an expansion through the Caucasus but would have focused on the seizure of Moscow.

But it's a 290 VP game and I have to take roughly a line Astrakhan Saratov Ryazan Moscow (included) lake Ladoga.

That's the reason of this little travel in the deep South. I hope being strong enough to take Moscow during summer 1943 and keep my others conquests.

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:53 am

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Do you think anyone even knows where Baku is? The entire world doesn't care if we capture Baku or not.

- Heinz Guderian -

well he would have said it in these circumstances

+1

but the capture of Baku means the surrender of all russians units in the South/west Caucasus, a shorten frontline, and the ability to "free" the major
big part of my pzd/mot!

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:55 am

ORIGINAL: rbrockman2

The primary goal of the Germans is to isolate and kill groups of Russian units. What makes this doable is that for a long time there are always some Russians that are off by themselves and vulnerable: the Germans simply rail their mobile units to wherever the "victim" units are, surround them, and toast them. Killing Russian units thin the Russian lines, leading to more groups of vulnerable Russians that can be toasted next, etc.

From this perspective, the recent Crimean operation in this AAR was great because it toasted a bunch of Russian divisions while freeing up a bunch of Axis units to go rampage elsewhere.

Usually (historically), Axis advance into the Caucasus is a bad idea because it extends the Axis forces over a wide area capturing territory without allowing the capture of Russian units. The situation in this AAR is different: the Axis forces in the Eastern Caucasus have been allowed to outflank the Russians and drive down the Caspian. Am I correct in assuming that all the Russian units in the Caucasus depend on Baku for supply? If so, when the Axis reaches the southern map edge then a stack of Russian divisions are toast, regardless of how the defense of Baku itself goes. Note that the situation in the Caucasus has inexplicably lured a bunch of Guards units into tangling with the SS, in clear terrain, far away from anything the Russians need to defend, near a big body of water with no nearby ports. This doesn't seem very healthy for the Russians.

Your right, the supply source is Baku, and on turn 92, I've cut the railline Baku/Tbilissi so the units in Georgia are dead ducks.

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 8:09 am

Turn 92, 18th march 1943

The last pictures from this game. If Matrix doesn't find a solution to allow me loading the game, this AAR and the game will end [:@]

Defence in front of Baku collapses, several russians corps are destroyed ans the rail line Baku/Tbilissi cut!

In the north, a picture to show the ground taken by frogmarc during the winter!

loki100 · Post by **loki100** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 8:35 am

will be a pity if this ends. You've done a brilliant job, as rbrockman2 says, of breaking up the Red Army into bite sized chunks, and of doing so in a way that frees up your units for the next step. You could easily have got badly overstretched but you've kept that balance.

While I think frogmarc may have played into your hands - that powerful force of Gds on the Caspian Front is very vulnerable and would be better hitting you somewhere else (???? - at least that is what I'd try) - you've really set the tempo of the campaign across this period [;)]

Tarhunnas · Post by **Tarhunnas** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 10:05 am

Yes, this is very interesting, hope they can fix the problem! Would love to see how this ends. Kudos to you for a well conducted campaign, and to your opponent Frogmarc for keeping up the game and continuing fighting bravely in the face of adversity.

Edit: BTW it would be interesting to see Soviet production, do you know what the Soviet Arm and HI numbers are?

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:54 pm

ORIGINAL: loki100

will be a pity if this ends

no comment!!! I'm too angry [:@]

that powerful force of Gds on the Caspian Front is very vulnerable and would be better hitting you somewhere else (???? - at least that is what I'd try) - you've really set the tempo of the campaign across this period [;)]

I think so too.

I also kept the initiative because he always tried to respond to my attacks. If he had given space and attacked elsewhere, I couldn't have maintained such pressure.

In the north, he has a respecfull but not huge force and I have to give ground and just send in this area 3 Inf divs and 1 Pzd....

STEF78 · Post by **STEF78** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:57 pm

ORIGINAL: Tarhunnas

Yes, this is very interesting, hope they can fix the problem!

I hope so too!!![;)]

BTW it would be interesting to see Soviet production, do you know what the Soviet Arm and HI numbers are?

Marc, do you have screens or figures about it?

M60A3TTS · Post by **M60A3TTS** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 2:20 pm

Maybe they'll find frogmarcs current game file corrupted and he'll have to replay a turn. Whatever it is, you should be able to continue the game from some point.