Through the looking glass: the Soviet side of my mirror match

[CapAndGown]

As Pravda reported in post #63 of this thread, our pull back from the Dnepr was actually a ruse meant to draw the Germans deeper into Russia and that we were setting up a huge trap that would result in the destruction of the Wehrmacht. This week that trap was sprung! OK, so maybe it didn't result in the destruction of the entire Wehrmacht. It might not even be noticed at OKH. [:D] But we did launch a large number of counter attacks. These counter attacks, though costing us more men than it is the Germans, are doing a great deal to raise the morale of our men. Indeed, it has already contributed to the creation of 2 guards divisions and 2 guards artillery regiments.

[CapAndGown]

Finally, a picture of the situation in the south. (Nothing is happening in the Crimea. Both sides are building forts at the choke points.)

[CapAndGown]

The Germans pocketed my units holding the Stalino-Gorlovka complex. How much further will they go? How long can my troops hold out? Yikes!

[CapAndGown]

In the center, we continued taking pot-shots at German and Axis allied troops.

[CapAndGown]

The Germans made some progress in front of Moscow, encircling 2 divisions in the process. I continue to be concerned about the northern flank of the Rzhev salient. It is too lightly held and has a few seams that might be exploited.

On a more positive note, the factories and Kalinin and Voroshilovgrad have been evacuated.

[eskuche]

Please show defensive values on screenshots

Farming the center seems good. Can send some more cavalry there too for that.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: eskuche

Please show defensive values on screenshots

Farming the center seems good. Can send some more cavalry there too for that.

Right now my cavalry is too busy digging trenches around Moscow and Voroshilovgrad to get involved in an out-of-the-way sector. I would love to farm some guard cavalry before December, but right now their shovels are more important than their guns.

Here is a look at Moscow defensive values.

[eskuche]

Pretty solid for pre-mud. I would maybe get some fort zones. They allow surrounding hexes to fort up to 3.10.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: eskuche

Pretty solid for pre-mud. I would maybe get some fort zones. They allow surrounding hexes to fort up to 3.10.

Yeah, I want some forts, but so far I have been using AP for the last few turns to "right size" my support units in my armies. This means having 3 artillery regiments, 0-1 BM artillery regiment, 2-3 AA battalions or 1 AA regiment and 1 AA battalion, and 3-4 sapper battalions, and 0-1 Motorcycle regiments per army. Excess support units are being reassigned to Stavka, which costs 1 AP per unit. That "right sizing" is just about done.

Another use has been reassigning divisions from one army to another to better align unit boundaries and to ensure armies are not overloaded. (I don't care if fronts are overloaded, since that is practically a given.)

Finally, I did make a leadership change last turn for an Army that is about to get caught up in the fighting. That cost something like 14 AP points.

Most of that is behind us now and I can start looking at creating forts. In particular, Moscow needs forts for each urban hex. Another use, however, is to create some ShaP regiments. I have a good number of IL-2's in the pool, enough to carry my over for a while, even if I move the factories soon. Would you recommend disbanding PE-2/SB-2 regiments? They are not as effective, take up space on airbases, and I am sure they eat up supply.

[CapAndGown]

So, my opponent basically stopped the production of LaGG-3 fighters to save on supply in our mirror match. He noted that he was facing shortages of supply and armaments. This caused me to examine my own situation. While supply seems adequate to both meet the needs for production, fort building, and supplying front line troops, the armament situation seems dire. Here are some numbers:

Supply:
produced last turn: 91,380
production: 30,562
forts (all): 17,300
required by units: 27,006

In total, 16,512 tons more supplies were produced than needed. That excess will go down as more units arrive and after having moved 10 heavy industry factories last turn. It will go down even further once the 9 Moscow heavy industry factories are moved. On the other hand, once the IL-2 factories at Voronezh and the Mig-3 factories at Moscow are moved, this will lessen the draw on supply. Overall, supply seems manageable.

Where the crisis looms is with armaments.
Pool: 94,469
Produced: 57,345
Consumed: 119,010
This is before I have even moved the 15 armaments factories at Kharkov and the 15 at Rostov.

So next turn it looks like our pool of armaments will begin to out run our production needs. So what to do?

Well, one thing seems to be putting off moving the Kharkov and Rostov factories until the last 2 turns of mud. Another option I am considering is disbanding newly arriving rifle brigades during the month of October. This will put those ground elements into the pool of existing elements, lessening the number needed to be produced.

Any thoughts on this subject?

[chaos45]

ya basically as you rebuild the soviet army you will run out of both manpower and armaments unless you selectively starve units of replacements. Depending on how well the German players does will take until Late 1942+ before you might get to a surplus.

[CapAndGown]

Need a clarification on disbanding.

1) Do disbanded divisions/brigades return as reinforcements?

2) Starting in November, if I disband a brigade, does it cost 3 AP or 1 AP, or 3AP+1AP. Section 18.1.3 is not clear.

[chaos45]

instead of disbanding them, just put them to minimum ToE level and use them to hold forts...as they will slowly build some esp if close to a city and put in an Army/HQ...as well having these shell BDEs and divisions around can allow to hold rear forts from degrading when you go into a winter offensive.

[redrum68]

To my knowledge, disbanding always takes 1 AP. But I do tend to agree with chaos45, that usually for onmap units its better to just set their TOE to 20% and let them build/hold forts.

[CapAndGown]

The Germans pulled off a large encirclement around Rzhev. As I indicated earlier, I was worried about this salient. It appears the Germans did some HQ buildups in order to pull this off, since it required multiple zoc-to-zoc moves to achieve. If next turn were not mud, we would be in even worse shape next turn, with little to stop the rampaging Germans. As it is, I threw what I had in the path of the panzers and counted on the rasputitza to accomplish what my troops cannot.

I did gain two more guard divisions this turn, and a number of artillery regiments are now guards units. I expect more guards divisions next turn, including 1 cavalry division. Meanwhile, 9th Army (Southern Front, Rokossovsky) has 26 victories, and 6th Army (Soutwest Front, Zhadov) has 22. Still a ways to go, but I am hoping to turn these 2 into guards armies this winter.

[CapAndGown]

West of Kursk we continue to take pot shots at weak axis units. The cavalry division should achieve guard status next turn.

[CapAndGown]

A view of the Kharkov salient.

I am going to wait on moving the 15 armament factories in Kharkov at least until November. I need to keep the armaments churning out. I am also waiting on moving the 15 armaments factories at Rostov. Instead, this turn I moved the 4 heavy industry at Rostov. I also moved the 42 T-34 factories at Stalingrad. Those factories are eventually going to get moved anyway, and I felt it was better to do it before they had grown to full capacity. Also, by moving them now, I reduce the amount of supplies consumed by production. To that end, I also moved all my U-2VS factories: 1 point from each factory was moved, leaving the remaining factories 95% damaged. It will take them a good long while to start producing again and eating up my supply. Since I had left over rail capacity and because it did not cost that much, I also moved the BA-64, T-70, and OT-34 factories out of Gorky. Those vehicles do not begin production until 1942, so they should be totally repaired by the time they come on line. Finally, I increased my reserve rail capacity from 5 to 7%. With factory evacuation less pressing an issue, it is time to start moving troops into position, both for a more solid defense, and in preparation for the winter offensive. The MLR west of Kursk is especially weak and the Germans may try an offensive here in November. Already, one panzer corps is heading west from Stalino and is now about 3/4 of the way to Dnepropetrovsk (sorry I cropped that out of the screen shot).

[CapAndGown]

I had thought my troops holding the Stalino-Gorlovka complex might hold out for a few turns, perhaps even through the mud. The Germans, on the other hand, decided to go all in on taking those cities before the mud set in. Just as well; I will get those troops back that much sooner.

[CapAndGown]

I failed to mention this above, but partisans hit both the Kiev and Smolensk rail lines this turn, stopping rail conversion along those lines. Overall, my partisans have done a wonderful job of slowing down rail conversion.

[CapAndGown]

As I did with my German game, here are the stats at the end of the campaigning season. (For the German side these stats were taken at the beginning of turn 18. Here they are for the end of turn 17.)