Generalrisky (Axis) vs Seminole (Soviet) - Bitter End

[Elessar2]

This is a total disaster in the making for the Axis. He was far far too tardy in extracting his elite units from said salient, including a good chunk of his armor.

[Seminole]

Turn 27

First observation, OKH isn't panicking yet, and it's probably too late to.

Leningrad sector:

Limited attacks here. Unit strength just isn't that high (the pincer assault force had several weeks to refit, these units have been on the line).



Bryansk Front continues their efforts to liberate their namesake city. 49th Army is able to force retreats on either side of the 1/5th and 2/5th Panzer Div stacked together and 45th Tank Bde shatters the fortified zone in their rear to isolate them.
Attacks farther south gain more space for Orel and Kursk.



In the Kharkov sector Southwestern and Southern Fronts maintain pressure on the line. Mechanized forces are still prevalent here.
Surprisingly the Germans are trying to hold the steppe when I expected them to generally withdraw.



Transcaucasus Front and Southern Front have even more success east of Stalino. Reinforcements headed for the Moscow sector from the Caucasus region are visible on the rail in the rear.



In the Moscow sector the Germans have taken some pains to pull back and straighten their lines.
Mechanized forces that were in the NE corner of the salient have been pulled back towards Rzhev to try and bolster defenses while contact is re-established with the infantry isolated last week.
6th Panzer Division has already been re-deployed from AGN to defend Velikie Luki. An unknown motorized division is found by recon just west of this position.

Volkhov Front resumes the offensive, smashing south toward the headwaters of the Mezha and Dnepr rivers.
Rokossovsky sends a dispatch to STAVKA notifying them that his cavalry have severed the Velikie Luki rail line a week ahead of schedule, and have begun to overrun Luftwaffe airbases in the enemy rear.



East of Vyazma the Germans have pulled the 10th Mot Div back from its position near Moscow.
Zhukov urges Bryansk Front to expand the shoulders of his breach while he focuses 1st Shock Army on a NW axis of advance.
3rd and 4th Panzer, broken down into regiments, are brushed aside as the Soviet cavalry pour through the forests and swamps and blow a hole AGC's lines.
The road to Smolensk is open!



With the Smolensk - Vyazma railway overrun Zhukov and Rokossovsky's cavalry scouts are separated by only 30 miles.
STAVKA orders the airborne operation to commence.
3 divisions of airborne are dropped to cordon AGC from vehicle supplies.

The trap is sprung! Merry xmas, Hitler!



At least 37 combat formations are trapped in the Rzhev-Vyazma pocket.

Overall strategic map at the end of the turn:



Map showing Zhukov's planned objectives and weekly progress with final turn 27 positions:




OKH reports that their efforts to break the cordon have failed, and the Germans have sued for peace.




Thanks Generalrisky for a fun game!

[Rusty1961]

You should have made him play to the end.

[redrum68]

Oh wow nice use of airborne. That is a brutal pocket. What's the final OOB look like?

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

You should have made him play to the end.

I can't make anybody do anything, nor do I have the inclination. [:)]
I imagine he'd rather focus on games where the issue remains in doubt.
Many, many hours of game play between here and Berlin, and as much as I'd enjoy seeing how fast I could get there, I understand his interest in conceding at this stage. We play games to have fun.

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: redrum68

Oh wow nice use of airborne. That is a brutal pocket. What's the final OOB look like?

I was so pleased with my pocket that it's the one turn I forgot to export the CR stats.

This is the last OoB snapshot from turn 27, but I'd estimate at least 300k troops in the pocket. With how HQs surrender now, I'd need to get a copy of his CR stats export to make a better estimate of the hole about to be blown into the Wehrmacht over the next few weeks, but over 400k is probably likely.

[Balou]

Well done

[redrum68]

Yeah, I was gonna guess you were up around 5M men looking at the map. Well done.

This IMO does highlight how strong a mass airborne drop can be. I personally favor house rules that limit airdrops more as I think its not realistic to see the soviets drop what is probably 30k men behind enemy lines during the blizzard to accurately cut off his supply lines. That being said you have a strong pincer and probably would have pocketed a portion of those units the following turn without air drops.

[eskuche]

The production level on this AAR is insane! Can I hire your team?

[Sammy5IsAlive]

Well played both! I think those last few turns will have been a good learning experience for Generalrisky about how unforgiving blizzard can be if the Germans haven't got all their ducks in a row before it starts - I think a more experienced player probably would have bailed out of that large salient in the last couple of turns of snow.

As eskuche says, a really well done AAR also - those mini animations are great!

[Seminole]

If I had a wish for WitE2 it was that they logged multiplayer unit movement to a file so that a replay was possible for the opponent.
Seems like it would be doable, and you could lay FOW over it so that unseen movements weren't displayed.
It's conceivable that the player could also trigger the replay file separately somehow in order to record their own turns moves.
Would make for great animated AARs and game publicity. [8D]

Someone trying to watch me play the game would be bored to tears without how ponderous I can be (or frequently I have to pause and do something else...)

But I imagine there's tons of other features that will be introduced instead, so I'll just hope the granddaddy War in Europe combination of WitE2 and WitW comes to fruition and includes it in time for my retirement.