The Oder must hold! VtB: xhoel (Axis) vs Gunnulf (Soviet)

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: IslandInland

Thanks for the AAR. I am enjoying it.

Thank you, glad to hear that!

ORIGINAL: IslandInland
This is one of my favourite scenarios and the first one I ever played.

It has its charm thats for sure!

[xhoel]

T13, April 7th 1945

Westphalia and Hesse have fallen to the Anglo-American forces. The enemy has encircled a large number of formations in the Ruhr (350.000 men) and has cut off the industrial heart of the Reich.

This is a breakdown of cut off factories in the Ruhr:

Heavy Industry: 180 (20% of total production)
Fuel: 39 (18%)
Synthetic Fuel: 32 (24%)
Manpower: 111 (6%)
Oil: 15 (27%)
Sdkfz 250: 37 (79%)
Panzer IV Chassis: 6 (5%)

West and East front now only 200 miles apart. With the Western Front collapsing and a much larger Soviet threat in the East, the Führer has ordered the transfer of reserves from the West. 6 Divisions are now starting to move east. We hope to delay the Soviets long enough so that a separate peace deal can be signed with the western forces.

The Region of Emilia-Romana in Italy has also fallen.





AGN

Heavy Rain in this sector translates to heavy mud so no attacks launched by the Soviets this week. Our forces ordered to hold their positions. The last regiment of the 14th Panzer Division and the VI SS Latvian Corps evacuated from Kurland. This concludes evacuations for the time being.

This is the breakdown of the units now in Kurland:

-16th Army (55k men):
2 Corps with 4 Infantry Divisions and 3 Security Divisions (one of which is very understrength) and 1 Security Regiment.

-18th Army (77k men):
2 Corps with 8 Infantry Divisions, 1 Panzer Division, 1 Security Regiment and 1 Infantry Brigade.

AGN end of the week:



Army Group North composition:



AGV

Soviets continue to hold back in this sector and only launched 5 attacks last week. Luftflotte 6 has been successful in the air downing a large number of enemy planes and establishing air supremacy in the area. Unfortunately due to a bug relating to GS, my tactical bombers have not helped at all in the battles fought here so all my TacBomber losses are in vain. Bug thread here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5132629

Recon and intelligence indicate a massive build up in the rear. 4th Army and 3rd Panzer Army ordered to pull back and take up defensive positions on the Oder. Only certain strongpoints that intend to delay the Soviet push remain east of the river. Stettin becomes frontline city.

AGV before:



Battle example:



AGV after:



AGC

In this sector the Soviets are really pushing aggressively launching successful attacks all along the line. 10 miles of forward positions are given up to the enemy and we pull back in more favorable positions (heavy mud). Soviet spearheads now a mere 70 miles from Berlin. Luftflotte 6 shows its teeth, mauling the VVS hard.

AGC before:



Heavy battles in the sector:







GS working properly could have probably turned some of these retreats into holds but nothing can be done about it now.

AGC after:

[xhoel]

AGA

The Soviets are continuing their push towards Dresden. The open terrain makes defensive operations difficult in the sector, but the 12th Army and the 6th SS Army are putting up enough screens to prevent a major breakthrough. In front of Prague our counterattacks seem to have done the job of securing the city from a direct assault. The Soviets have not tried to reach the outskirts again and Prague is now a NSS again, which is extremely vital for the supply situation in the area and for the refitting of units. A few full strength divisions completely mauled by Soviet attacks.

Forces of the 6th SS Panzer Army and 12th Army ordered to hold on to their positions on the Elbe and the surrounding high ground. Positions in the Moravian Heights are abandoned for better ones in the rear. 4th Panzer Army forming a screen around Soviet armored spearheads pushing towards Bavaria.

Prague before:



Soviet heavy attacks:





Prague after:



AGS

Bratislava has fallen to a direct Soviet attack. The defenders have been routed and taken heavy losses in the process. Soviet armored forces have punched west and now 2 Soviet Tank Armies are pressing towards Bavaria. The enemy has crossed the Danube just east of Vienna and mauled the defending 17th Panzer Division. The bridgehead here is strong so no counterattack is possible. A second crossing further to the west has been prevented by the defending 20th Panzergrenadier Division.

The main task of Army Group South now is to defend Vienna and the rail connections to Berlin. The shortening of the front has released some armored formations to be redeployed elsewhere. Vienna itself has been reinforced by another Infantry division. The garrison of the city is composed of 3 IDs and 1 Panzergrenadier Regiment for a defensive CV of around 150. Fort level is 2 (90%) and will probably go up to 3 in the Soviet turn. The Vienna corridor has been reinforced by additional units and 2 further divisions to the south have been set to reserve to react to Soviet attacks against Vienna proper.

To neutralize the Soviet armored thrust to the west, a strong counterattack against the 9th Mechanized Corps was launched. The attack succeeded and panzer regiments have cut through the rear of the exploiting Soviet forces. The Soviet 3rd Guards and 4th Guards Tank Armies with 7 Tanks Corps (of which 4 Guards) and 3 Guards Mechanized Corps have been cut off. 8th Army has set up a defensive screen north of Linz.

Further to the south, we have maintained control of the oil fields of Lovaszi but this is no longer possible. 2nd Panzer Army ordered to pull back to more defensive positions.

AGS start of the week:





17th Panzer Divisions hit hard. Soviets establish a bridgehead over the Danube.



Holds:





Outskirts of Lovaszi hold:



Battle of Bratislava:



Counterattack:



AGS after:

[tm1]

Nice counterattack against that Gds Tank Army.

What turn is it and how many to the end ?

[xhoel]

Losses and OOB

29.000 irrecoverable losses this week on top of a massive loss of material (1.234 guns) and another 520 AFVs. Soviet irrecoverable losses 27.000 and half our gun losses.



With Luftflotte 6 dominating the skies in front of Berlin air losses have increased significantly: 356 planes and 214 pilots lost. Soviet plane losses close to 1.000 and 841 pilots lost.



OOB keeps dropping, barely 2 million men are ready to fight in the East. Western Front gets most of the replacements that were saved for the East which is extremely frustrating. Of the 19k replacements received, only 6.000 went to direct combat forces. 8.5k went to SUs and 4.5k to the LW for air base support.







Overview of the Front:

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: tm1

Nice counterattack against that Gds Tank Army.

What turn is it and how many to the end ?

Thank you!

This was T13, the campaign ends on T20 (start of June) so 6 more turns.

[EwaldvonKleist]

Nice counterattacks. With 6 turns left there should be a good chance you can hold Berlin. Kudos for soldiering on despite the skewed replacement distribution. I find that one of the appeals the VtB scenario is that you have to repair a chaotic and worn out army, but if most resources you free from disbands etc. to fix other units are lost to the West that doesn't really work.

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

Nice counterattacks. With 6 turns left there should be a good chance you can hold Berlin. Kudos for soldiering on despite the skewed replacement distribution. I find that one of the appeals the VtB scenario is that you have to repair a chaotic and worn out army, but if most resources you free from disbands etc. to fix other units are lost to the West that doesn't really work.

Thank you! I doubt that I can hold Berlin for 6 more weeks but I remain optimistic that I can at least do better than historically. I took a look at T14, since I have the save now and the weather will be light mud in the Soviet T14, which is basically the same as clear. That puts them on time and in the right position for the start of the Berlin offensive. So I am expecting a lot of heavy fighting in the next two weeks.

True. I think that the main appeal of the later war scenarios/campaigns such as VtB and StB is that you get an army that is in a bad position and you can use the limited resources you have to bring them up to shape. With the current replacement system, that is all for nothing. I really hope the devs can see that this is an issue that will put players off from trying these very interesting scenarios and that it needs to be fixed/changed.

[Hardradi]

Time to get out those Wonder Weapons. [:(]

[Lovenought]

You know, everyone always jokes "Steiner will sort it all out" and such. But where are those guys? Are they doing well?

I hope Steiner hasn't died already. Then the Reich really is lost.

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: Hardradi

Time to get out those Wonder Weapons. [:(]

I will have 10 tactical nukes thank you! [:D]

ORIGINAL: Lovenought

You know, everyone always jokes "Steiner will sort it all out" and such. But where are those guys? Are they doing well?

I hope Steiner hasn't died already. Then the Reich really is lost.

Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner is doing a great job as commander of the 11th SS Panzer Army (yellow) defending the central approaches to Berlin. He is very healthy so far but dealing with a lot of stress!

[Hardradi]

ORIGINAL: xhoel

ORIGINAL: Hardradi

Time to get out those Wonder Weapons. [:(]

I will have 10 tactical nukes thank you! [:D]

Have you got any Me 262s or were they all deployed in the West?

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: Hardradi

Have you got any Me 262s or were they all deployed in the West?

I do, equipped my best experienced fighter group with them this turn. Hopefully they will see action this week. Update probably coming on Monday or Tuesday!

[HardLuckYetAgain]

The oracle was consulted and said, "The "W" shown in the charts foretell of the end.

Hmmmmm, oracle can't be wrong & the "W" has to be a "Win" Hold out those turns at all costs!!!!

[xhoel]

@HLYA: Hmmm interesting, maybe there will be a final victory after all [:D]

[xhoel]

T14, 14th of April 1945.

Weather

The weather next week will be rain all over the front and clear in Kurland. This means that water levels will drop from 6 to 5, so the ground will turn from Heavy Mud to Light Mud. The Berlin offensive will surely start in full strength next week.



Events

The WE have captured Baden and Thuringia. American forces now are on the outskirts of Leipzig and the West and East front are only 80 miles apart. The quick American advance here has overrun multiple air bases and has destroyed about 10% of our air units in the West.





In Italy the enemy has taken the regions of Piedmont and Veneto and has reached the Alps. The Front here is crumbling very fast.



AGN

The Soviet offensive against the forces in Kurland is intensifying. All three attacks succeeded in pushing our forces back this week, causing heavy losses. This has forced us to merge more divisions and pull back more towards the ports. All forces in the sector now subordinated to the 18th Army.

5 divisions located in the Ventspils sector and 7 in Liepaja. The problem in Liepaja has to do with the stacking rules. I have 4 HQs here and very few hexes I can use. Don’t know how I will deal with it when the pocket shrinks even more.

16th Army HQ, 1 Corps HQ and 1 ID have been evacuated.

Week start positions:



Kurland battles:



Positions at the end of the week:

[xhoel]

AGV, AGC and AGA

Only two attacks launched in the central sector this week. The Soviets are clearly building up for their massive Berlin offensive. Forces have left the forward positions and pulled behind the Oder to form a defense in depth. Especially the positions on the Oder banks have been reinforced heavily. Strongpoints over the line should make it difficult for the Soviets to gain a wide enough bridgehead here. Luftflotte 5 ordered to fly GS to support the 4th Army (blue) and 3rd Panzer Army (red).

In the 9th Army sector, the Soviets have finally managed to dislodge our forces from the hilly and rough terrain. The Army has been ordered to pull back and reform a defensive line around Dresden. Bautzen abandoned to the enemy. Reinforcements arriving from the south have allowed for some semblance of a defensive line to be formed here but we lack the forces to conduct a proper defense in depth. It is of absolute importance that we hold on to the connection between Prague and Berlin. To facilitate this, the city of Chemnitz should remain in our hands and away from the frontline. Luftflotte 6 ordered to fly GS to support the 11th SS Panzer Army (yellow), 9th Army (green) and 6th SS Panzer Army (grey).

The situation is better in the AGA sector defending Prague and the Elbe river line. The Soviet attack to reach the outskirts of the city has failed after a heroic defense of our forces. The enemy has managed to push a Rifle Corps forward north west of the city however which means it has lost its NSS capacity. We have been forced to abandon forward positions to avoid encirclement.

Counterattacks are launched against Soviet forward forces in the area. We manage to push back two Guards Mechanized Corps and 1 Rifle Division, causing heavy losses to the enemy. Luftflotte 4 has been ordered to fly GS in support of the 12th Army (light blue) and 4th Panzer Army (pink).

Positions start of the week:





Only hold marked in yellow. Battle shown below.

Hold:



Some battles from the sector:



Positions after Axis moves:

Army Group Vistula



Army Group Center



Army Group A



Counterattacks:

[xhoel]

Army Group South

The best news of the week comes from Vienna however. Here the citys defenders have managed to hold back two consequent Soviet attacks. As already prepared by the 6th Army, in the second attack, 2 mechanized divisions reacted from the reserve and saved the city from falling. The garrison has been heavily hit however and all units are in unready mode. Two infantry divisions merged together but left behind in the city (they couldnt reach our lines), together with a Hungarian division. Vienna will fall next turn. The defense on the right flank of the city has also held. North west of the city, the Soviets have managed to break the loose encirclement and advance a bit forward but not much. Goes to show that the gamble paid off and the Soviet Tank Armies have not managed to exploit properly.

We have initiated a pullback in the area. A lot of units have moved north to shore up the defenses there. The rest of our forces are holding on to the Danube. It is important to protect the city of Steyr where the last major tank chassis factories are located and also important to protect Bavaria from a Soviet push.

Soviet forces have made contact with the 2nd Panzer Army. The majority of the units facing us here are treacherous Rumanian troops. We attack two divisions and send them back reeling. Ground is given up slowly.

Army Group South start of the week:



1st Battle of Vienna:



2nd Battle of Vienna:



Notice the reserve activations and the close odds. Without the activations, the city would have fallen.

IV Feldherrnhalle Panzer Corps holds the Danube line south east of the city:



Army Group South after Axis moves:





Counterattacks on Rumanian forces:



Full front overview:

[Stamb]

Looks like battles in heavy urban is not having such issues as with urban.

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: Stamb

Looks like battles in heavy urban is not having such issues as with urban.

I would say so yeah.