Saper (Axis) vs Tyrone (Soviet). (no Saper)

[tyronec]

Thanks Sammy, was working off the old weather rules.

[tyronec]

T16.
Quiet turn, lots of withdrawing and shifting troops around.
Win a few battles down south against the German allies, Sapper has given me almost no chance to attack them.
Liberate my first city with a risky attack..
Have stopped night bombing, with the Axis fighters doing no action during the day they have no fatigue and are fighting back too well.

[tyronec]

T17 after recon.
Just two attacks north of the marshes.
Several attacks around Stalino, nothing pocketed. He has opened up a supply line to the block of 7 units and brought some more down to reinforce them.
Three armoured divisions attack the Crimea, they get held up for two attacks.
I can only locate 13 German armoured divisions on the whole map.

Thoughts for the turn.
Will advance into contact across the map to push up his attrition and protect my entrenching.
Saper has left me with very little scope for making attacks, as usual.
There is no chance of isolating anything down south.
Will retreat to the Crimea and also look at shipping some of my cavalry back to Rostov. Don’t want to start the blizzard with them all locked into the Crimea and nowhere to go.

Will continue recon during the mud to try and determine if he is going to attack during the snow or simply dig entrenchments.

The aggressive air war has come to an end. Am changing my strategy to ground bombing and ground support; with blocks of fighters for defence. And just wait for any air base bombing opportunities.

I have 293 AI and 196 HI, will see how any shortage effects me. Am down to 150k armaments in the pool and dropping 30k a turn so may run out before the damaged ones get up to par.

[tyronec]

T17.
Pulling the cavalry out through the Crimea and shipping back to Rostov, nothing to show. The circumnavigation of Azov was worth it as got a few wins out of the exercise and no units lost.
Will post again when the snow starts.

[M60A3TTS]

What is your evaluation of your air campaign? He will be in a position to replace some fighters now that the weather is turning. Anything you would do differently?

[tyronec]

What is your evaluation of your air campaign? He will be in a position to replace some fighters now that the weather is turning. Anything you would do differently?

Good result for me. Did for half the German fighters and that reduced Luftwaffe ground bombing and ground support, which is what matters. Could possibly have achieved the same with massive fighter blocks behind the front line, but this was more fun.
I may have given him some very high experience fighter units, not sure how that will pan out.
Am happy to be rid of all those LBs, think of all the trucks saved.
Yes, Germans will rebuild their fighters for '42 but the VVS will be better equipped to fight back, so the same tactics may not apply.

The question is not what would I would do differently, but what to do if the German player does things differently.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: tyronec

What is your evaluation of your air campaign? He will be in a position to replace some fighters now that the weather is turning. Anything you would do differently?

Good result for me. Did for half the German fighters and that reduced Luftwaffe ground bombing and ground support, which is what matters. Could possibly have achieved the same with massive fighter blocks behind the front line, but this was more fun.
I may have given him some very high experience fighter units, not sure how that will pan out.
Am happy to be rid of all those LBs, think of all the trucks saved.
Yes, Germans will rebuild their fighters for '42 but the VVS will be better equipped to fight back, so the same tactics may not apply.

The question is not what would I would do differently, but what to do if the German player does things differently.

You were doing night bombing & he was intercepting, correct?

[tyronec]

You were doing night bombing & he was intercepting, correct?

Yes, all 109s and 110s intercepting. Bases too far away for fighters to get at.
These are present losses but was much the same around T16.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: tyronec

You were doing night bombing & he was intercepting, correct?

Yes, all 109s and 110s intercepting. Bases too far away for fighters to get at.
These are present losses but was much the same around T16.

Ya, pretty much the German fighter loses(soviet too when they intercept with fighters at night) have high attritional rates flying night intercept it looks like. I am not going to fly my Groupe's and see what I get with the Schwarms. (Crosses fingers)

Plus Soviet bombers get more planes destroyed at night time (as you said) than Germans get flying daylight bombing raids from my tests. Something is wrong with that picture imo.

[tyronec]

T22 after recon.

First turn of the snow.

Leningrad. Axis have pulled back and have been building some forts.
NWest. Eight armoured units break through my front line and pocket 6 units. There is no way to break the pocket. Will just take the loss and form up on the next defensive line.
No attacks in the central area.
One push back at Stalino, Will reoccupy the hex to try and hold Gorlovka, which is a risk.
Crimea. Has attacked with 7 armoured divisions, some of them still have fuel and could even be doing an HQB. Have likely lost 3 units, am not sure whether to fall back or counterattack.

After much consideration I attacked the motorised division to try and release my three units, attack failed so am just hoping the panzers don't have enough MPs to do much damage. Hold my position on the river to restrict their movement.

[tyronec]

Not much happening - position after recon.

Germans make several attacks around Stalino, Soviets take two hexes back.
Axis seal off the three units in the Crimea.
Elsewhere I advance so that I should be in contact across the whole line next turn.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: tyronec

Not much happening - position after recon.

Germans make several attacks around Stalino, Soviets take two hexes back.
Axis seal off the three units in the Crimea.
Elsewhere I advance so that I should be in contact across the whole line next turn.

Random weather in the Crimea come Dec you will have 1 maybe 2 turns of blizzard at the most. The rest of the time it will be snow. Plan accordingly since it looks like Sapper might be taking advantage of the weather there. I know I have done it.

[tyronec]

T24

You were right, Saper launched another panzer corps into the Crimea and pocketed 6 units. Could have coped with what was, I had done recon for reinforcements but they must have been some way back. No chance of getting my troops out so I have to run again.

Not much action elsewhere, I move up into contact along the line.
Mostly axis have one division on a 2 level fort along the front line, am presuming he will stand and fight so will find out how 2 or 3 stacks of Soviets fare against this defence.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: tyronec

T24

You were right, Saper launched another panzer corps into the Crimea and pocketed 6 units. Could have coped with what was, I had done recon for reinforcements but they must have been some way back. No chance of getting my troops out so I have to run again.

Not much action elsewhere, I move up into contact along the line.
Mostly axis have one division on a 2 level fort along the front line, am presuming he will stand and fight so will find out how 2 or 3 stacks of Soviets fare against this defence.

Good luck on your winter offense. As you know from playing the Germans reserve movement like almost never happens, for Germans or Soviets. There is a way to get reserve activation but takes some prep work

[Nix77]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Good luck on your winter offense. As you know from playing the Germans reserve movement like almost never happens, for Germans or Soviets. There is a way to get reserve activation but takes some prep work

Please share the secrets

For some reason in our game my German opponents first blizzard defense turn was without almost any reserve activations, and that really enabled my offensive to get a headstart. I guess the positions need to be prepared, the reserve units well rested and in good supply. Having reserves on army (or front for Soviets) level helps to spread their support but makes the activation less likely. Any other hints?

[tyronec]

In my game with Grognard I reorganised my army so that the panzers were in the second line, in the same corps as the front line infantry, on reserve and in good shape.
Got no reactions at all throughout the blizzard so it was a waste of APs and effort.

[Nix77]

ORIGINAL: tyronec
Got no reactions at all throughout the blizzard so it was a waste of APs and effort.

Hmm... that's quite surprising! HLYA you got any pro-tips for this lack of reserve activations?

[tyronec]

T25, losses before the start of the blizzard.
Would be interesting to get some feedback from any experienced players out there, who has the advantage at this point ?
To me it sees reasonably close though am concerned about my industry losses and the wide front Saper will have available to attack in '42.

[tyronec]

T25.

Thoughts on the game so far.
My mistake, we had agreed random weather but on checking the file the game is non-random.

Would have taken my position at the end of T17 if I had been offered it at the start. Had a few unit losses that were not necessary but it is always going to be something of a guessing game as to how much fuel the panzers have. Am still of the opinion that Axis cannot be stopped from taking Moscow or Leningrad in '41 though it may be a struggle to take both.

The snow turns were not so good, though again it is difficult to defend against panzers that have had 4 turns of mud to build up fuel and can be launched from some way back from the front line.

My strategy for the blizzard is to build up units experience and wins as for as possible. 19 Guards units so far. Am not expecting to get any breakthroughs or make any pockets. Will start attacking units where I can bring three stacks to bear or where the defences are a bit weaker and hopefully can get more units into combat as the turns progress, but never having played the mild blizzard/+1 combination am not sure how that will fare.

Built a stack of cavalry divisions (have 82) and sappers, should get them all converted to corps by next turn. Am short of Armament Points (have 100k manpower in the pool) so will use the Motorcycle units for now but may disband them later when there are more tanks on hand. Will be some time before I can start building artillery, apart from the rocket units.

For the blizzard will try and do as much ground support as possible with the VVS. Have a moderate number of LBs and the U2VSs, other Tac bases are almost empty. Will preserve my strategic recon for the spring.

All is focused towards summer '42. The aim is to have a good number of guard cavalry corps to give me some chance of conducting a slow and steady withdrawal.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

I think that *potentially* if you play it right you could give him real problems in the blizzard.

He is really vulnerable round Pskov - there is not a whole lot of defensive terrain around there and if you can get a bit of momentum together in that area you could potentially make a lot of his current defensive lines untenable. Similar thing with the line running West-East from the Valdai to N. of Moscow - if you can start 'rolling' that line up I think he could have a real problem holding on to Moscow. Obviously he may well put his best units into these areas to protect against those moves but if he does that a) those units are in the front line in (albeit mild) blizzard rather than resting/refitting and b) if those units are there then they aren't elsewhere(!)

Neither of those will win the game for you immediately but if you pull it off then he'll have the dilemma next year of needing to divert precious combat power into pushing you back away from what could be very dangerous jumping off points later in the game. Given that you have been able to hold on a fair way forward in the south he could be left with a huge amount to try and get done in a single summer campaign.

Just my 2c...