Two Celts Walk Into a Bar - Tyronec vs RedJohn

[tyronec]

AGS has two more failures with the assault on Rostov defeated and incursion across the Don beaten back.

The usual infiltrations by mobile Soviet units, so far they have done any damage to the supply network but it is a nuisance to have to dispose of them every turn. There are not going to be many Guards cav corps for a while in this game !

[tyronec]

This game has been over for a while now so I guess RedJohn is not going to post any more.

I resigned in January after an army got pocketed which opened up a big hole for more potential damage. Well played for the whole game by RedJohn.

Major mistakes by Axis:
The initial strategy didn't take into account GA and the need to counter it.
Advancing beyond fighter cover around T10 with PG2, which led to them getting badly trashed and killed off their offensive potential.
Getting the army pocketed during the winter, should have started pulling them back a turn earlier. The rest of the front was holding out OK.

A couple of screenshots from around Rostov on I think T18. Supplies were in good shape at this point.

C.jpg (198.15 KiB) Viewed 2001 times

D.jpg (40.87 KiB) Viewed 2001 times

[Jango32]

Did you turn Rostov into a super depot?

[RedJohn]

Apologies, been rather busy and put this as a low priority given the games conclusion. Spoilers yes, but Soviets won turn 28 or 29, one or the other.

I'll post the rest of the turns now.

Turn 12:



Rostov falls to 160,000 Germans. People always complain about soviet force concentration for pockets, whilst being blissfully ignorant that the Germans can also amass a truly ridiculous amount of force to hit a hex. Still, a good battle for me I guess.







The German ID at centre is freed, unfortunately, but we do get some holds.



Some more holds.



Decent ratio for once!





5,000 German KIA. I think this was the peak of our bombing campaign.






A look at the front. Pretty much quiet everywhere except Tula, Rostov, and a slight push at the Narva.







Lot of good counterattacks here.



By this point I'm keenly aware of the risk of sudden loss, but I believe his offensive has been blunted in enough locations to avoid the VP auto loss check.



I attempt to re-take Rostov, and would've succeeded if not for those reserves. Oh well.






A little misleading due to the Romanian attack, but add on the 5k German dead and that's an excellent turn.

[RedJohn]

Turn 13, we open with Rommel failing an attack. This isn't Africa, buddy. Welcome to the Eastern Front.







A casual 1200 Gun attack for the Germans. Truth be told I expected Tyronec to stop at the Don. How wrong I was.



Loss ratio is actually solid, though.





Another day, another Tula bombing campaign.





We engage in a little tomfoolery at Voronezh.




Scant few opportunities to attack here.



We do hit a unit at Rostov though, I guess.





Germans dip below 3m men on map for the first time. STAVKA is optimistic.



For the actual battles Germans fighters dutifully flew, but I guess my bombing campaigns took place during their union mandated breaks.

[RedJohn]

Turn 14, another 1200 Gun salute by the Germans, this time up north.





We hit a German unit up here. Screenshots are a bit sporadic for this turn, as I started it the night prior. Tula sees its first break in action for many, many weeks.



The Orel offensive is crushed, as is usual.



We deal devastating casualties to this division.



A rough hold. The Germans continue expanding their bridgehead across the Don.




The mood at STAVKA is now very pessimistic.





I cheer myself up by reviewing the bombing numbers though.



I was advised by one of my top commanders that this area could be pocketted, and while initially dismissed I listened to the advice at the end of the turn.



A much better line to hold, at least.





As I was frantically adjusting the south, I also discovered a rather curious quirk whereby moving the HQ which these fort units is attached to, adjusts the on map CV. Sort of like how it did in WITE1 where you replaced generals and the on-map cv changed accordingly. Not sure it means anything, was just an oddity.






Serge Bond finally does his duty and my TB requirements decrease. Hopefully this means the TBs will start releasing my men.



A truly stupid amount of divisions held at the flanks! Give me back my Rifle Divisions!



One consequence of closed TBs is also where the units spawn in as reinforcements. This really fucks the Soviets over, as you get a glut of reinforcements from the east and transcaucasus. The latter of which spawn at Baku, and take absolute eons to reach a relevant part of the front. With open TBs they'll be in the reserve and can be deployed pretty much anywhere.



2 units clog the rail!



This was a different game, but even if I had access to that other rail, it's still supremely awkward to move these units somewhere important.

[RedJohn]

Turn 15.





The minor pushing continues up at Leningrad. I am content with how this sector is going.



Tula also remains quiet, thankfully.



As does Voronezh.




At Rostov however, German efforts intensify. Their bridgehead is expanded, and I have practically no hope of containing them. I only hold once at the port, probably due to the way combat works with ports. Not good.





It's jover, bros. Axis fighters have tired of our bombing and have intercepted, slaughtering basically an entire air group for 13 of their own. It was bound to happen eventually, and I'm happy with the results though.







One consequence of the way my opponent plays, is that he's concentrated basically all of his SUs on his panzer deathballs - at Leningrad, Tula, and Rostov. This means he's decided to deplete the artillery SUs from units in less combat heavy areas, which contributes to excellent battles like these.



This brigade does very well against 100,000 Soviets!




Guards aren't far for quite a few units.



Lowest losses yet, ignoring the thousand planes lost!




Romanians continue to shine with their ineptitude.



This entire front, more or less, seems to be manned by axis allies.

[RedJohn]

Turn 16. The northern push continues. Slowly, gently, this is how Leningrad is taken.



Alls quiet on the Western Front.



Powerful soviet cavalry.








Tula is isolated, however. Some extremely painful battles for both sides.



Mostly for me, though. Rostov bridgehead is now no longer really a bridgehead, and the collapse of the Southern Front draws closer.



At least we're dealing a few casualties in return.



This is my leaked STAVKA plan for reorganising my battlelines. Kalinin front (brown) is an assault front, and given my goal isn't to take Smolensk during winter, I decided to swap the Western Front (blue) and the Kalinin Front. This would let me concentrate all of my assault units on one specific area, and would let forts be built up at Vyazma.






Some counterattacks. Some good, some less good.



This one definitely less good. My opponent loves having mobile units on reserve. Thankfully Boldin despite his lacklustre stats decided to withdraw before much damage could occur.



Bryansk front prepares for a grand winter offensive.



I, a turn or two too late really, retreat from Rostov. I should've done so earlier after it became clear I wasn't dislodging him from the river. A mistake on my part. Part of my rationale was holding out until turn 16 so as to avoid the VP auto loss, but I could've done so and also just retreated. Oops.




Some counterattacks north of rostov. I become aware of the possibility he goes for Stalingrad instead, but I don't really have anything to stop him at this point given the units so I just hope he continues downwards if he chooses to advance at all.



Cobbled together an army to hit the errant Romanians plaguing my interior.




I really don't like the amount of useless AFV regiments/battallions, so I disband most of them.





We creep towards 4m on map. Nearly AFV parity, too.



Not been showing it, but of course we are in the rainy season.

[RedJohn]

Turn 17, a turn that will live on in infamy.



Contrary, yet again, to my expectations - the southern offensive continues full swing. I was utterly flabbergasted by this. I was sure that given the approach of mud he'd consolidate his lines for winter, and to avoid shedding trucks. He's already missed the auto win by turn 16, and the next check is 750 VP at turn 29 or something - this wouldn't be met unless he took Baku and all the other southern VPs.

I was also surprised he could even advance this far in a turn. My advisors continued to insist he must be out of supply, but given the earlier screenshot posted by my opponent clearly my paranoia was correct.




Pretty quiet elsewhere, Tula excepting.



My poor AFVs.



Strong hold, though. Rivers saving my bacon.



We fail a counterattack here, pretty awful battle really.




German supply seems to be going strong.



VPs.




On the bright side, my Siberian and mountain hordes will soon arrive. I just need to painfully rail them to the front...



We complete our reorganisation and take up new lines.



I desperately try to cobble together an adequate defensive line. I could've retreated further, but I figured he was surely not going to have much fuel to do anything. Surely!



Vatutin gets a new toy, to be used and abused until forcefully disbanded.



Dunno why it's using the old TOE, but I pray it sticks to it for as long as possible.





I also spy this.



A vast fleet of Axis transports, flying in untolds amounts of supplies. Curse them.

[RedJohn]

Turn 18. A turn that will live on in infamy..er.



A nasty encirclement. It's not a lot of troops, but I don't have much to spare down here and refitting is a nightmare. Clearly light mud does not deter my enemy.




Light action at Tula. I'm glad he's not resting these units just yet.



I try to break my men out, but the CVs here are dreadful. Unfortunate.



We at least get one win off down in these cursed lands.



Up at Voronezh however life is much better, and we get a cheeky win off. Again we can see the impact of having no artillery SUs.



This turn also sees the arrival of the Soviet Brigade Horde. For whatever reason like a billion brigades are going to be generated, and by God I will see them put onto every unit on the map.



Rain and rain.



At least he's losing trucks... Kind of.

[RedJohn]

Turn 19.



Please God let my units down here rest. Needless to say, but my mood was not very jovial upon opening these turns and gazing down south at the absolute clusterfuck. The pocket is liquidated and a new one is immediately formed.

Still, my advisors say, German supply must be failing. Now I understand Stalin and his purges.



Even the northern Don isn't spared the Axis advance, as axis allies are thrust into the vanguard. I don't have much to stop them, so it is what it is.



On the bright side we have 4m men on map. Huzzah!



We encircle some units here.



And we book it here. A keen eye might notice that I've already started removing units from the Kerch garrison. This will continue for a while.



I put an NKPS down here a while ago, expecting to superdepot my supply issues away - but this was a huge mistake and did absolutely nothing. As soon as that double rail is cut my supply needs to take a big detour around the caucasus through Georgia, so in hindsight this did nothing.



At least our brigades are deployed, ready for next turn.



Cold will also set in next turn, with blizzards not far off.



This is the STAVKA battleplan for winter. The flanks are weak, and Bryansk/Kalinin fronts are both assault fronts which will envelop the enemy and win the game.



He retreats from Boguchar, my army successfully deterring the seizing of this linchpin in the south. A great success.



All Siberian reinforcements are going to Voronezh to support the grand plan.




I figured my opponent was planning on holding his ground at Tula, as he had shifted units/HQs so that level 3 forts were being built.




Pavlov also lived in this timeline, and continues to menace the WF with his 1 political.



Next turn we get some much needed reinforcements.



Manpower production is... Not looking so hot.



Thankfully the reinforcements are pushing us over the edge, and we finally overtake on map axis men.



Even in spite of our bad losses.



Crucially it seems he's also not able to refit his units properly, as axis manpower is still climbing. This is a combined pool so it's not entirely accurate, but it becomes particularly obvious when freight penalties end and you see this start to plummet as the German reinforcements get released into units.

[RedJohn]

Turn 20.



A reprieve at Krasnodar and Maikop, thank God. Cold covers the front.



And with cold, comes Siberians.







I score some easy wins to use up my CPP before blizzard. As you might notice, every brigade has been attached to Kalinin and Bryansk fronts, then to the Central front (green).




Kalinin and Bryansk fronts OOB. A million men ready to strike the flanks and crush the Wermacht at Tula.



With these wins, I have my first guards whenever they decide to promote.



The Voronezh buildup.



OOB looking good.



We continue our cavalry tomfoolery. In hindsight, a lot of these manouveres accomplished very little. I rationalized it as diverting attention, and it's hard to guage how much that helped I suppose, but I definitely threw away MANY men.



Winter is coming.



Action phase losses.



Incredibly beefy unit. Shame it can no longer becomes guards.

[RedJohn]

Turn 21.




We get our first guards. Just in time to refit them for blizzard.



Snow was thankfully very quiet, and this hold up north is all that happened up here.




One good, one awful battle.



Still pushing!



Not the worst turn losses wise.



I try bombing in the south. Doesn't really do much, but I do spot this absolutely hilarious raid. Sadly it was a one-off and not representative of the phase as a whole.




Gone are our Tula glory days.



Score a win up here, was a fairly bad win I believe.



Another dreadful win. 10-1 losses when the unit doesn't even have artillery support.



Also facing slight command issues. We get some fronts soon though.




Some more wins. Happy with these results (especially as they're crossing a big ol' river.



A less good result, but hey. Weak division.



OOB.



Front overview.

[RedJohn]

Turn 22.



He retreated from some hexes he took up here. No changes besides that.



Tula push continues. I guess it's more the Ryazan push now.



Powerful cavalry holds down here.



More grinding down here. Krasnodar is also reached by German forces.




Very low losses, and our OOB continues to swell. Soon Papa Stalin will release 500,000 men from the ether to assist us.




We have lost a... Lot, of planes.



My directives are bog standard default. I try not to micro the air war. I also used AS earlier in the game at high altitudes, but I was trading very poorly so stopped that.




Very nice, thank you.



With our first guards forming, we form our first guards rifle corps. We're limited to 2 until the start of 42. But look at that badboy.



Weather looking less promising. My entire strategy relies on blizzard at Tula, so I'm getting a little nervous at this point.




Won't stop me attacking, though.



More leaked STAVKA plans.



I decided to consolidate here around Maikop and Krasnodar, and abandon the eastern part over there.



I figured if he wanted to push to Baku, by all means he could try to do so. Turn 24 I receive a full army at Baku, and I decided that if necessary I could deploy this to that eastern area to stymie any advance.




Powerful tank.

[RedJohn]

Turn 23.




He retreats en masse in the north, and abandons the salient at Ryazan. I was getting very concerned now.



Thankfully blizzards aren't far behind, but still.



Looks like the offensive in the south has also stalled. A couple attacks, nothing major.



This is reflected in the almost 1-1 losses.



I confirmed my suspicions that mountain RDs are now considered RDs, thus explaining them being able to have units attached. I was also able to form this guards corp with a mountain unit and 2 other RDs. I reloaded, though, as this was just a test and a waste of a mountain unit. Dunno if this categorization change is intended.



Some more buildup.



Powerful.

All in all we have about 1.7m men ready for offensive operations between Kaluga, Tula, and Voronezh.



Germans also dip below 3m men decisively, probably in large part due to sending panzers home for Christmas.

[RedJohn]

Turn 24.



Weather.



One hold, very nice battle.



Stalin releases the reserves. Nice.




Almost 5m men on map.

Very quiet turn though, I think basically nothing happened. Without blizzard I decided to stall the offensive until it arrived.

[RedJohn]

Turn 25.




Some more skirmishes in the south, but nothing of importance.



Now this was a happy sight. Blizzard as far as the eye can see next turn.



We did have the northern half of the map have a lot of heavy snow.




So we begin our offensive.







I don't actually have much strength in these areas, so I'm not expecting big things here.




An overview of our forces. I did form a 2nd rifle corps, but I guess I didn't take a screenshot of it. These are monstrous tools to have for blizzard, and you can see on the right they're nearly 50,000 men a piece. Vatutin's army was also consolidated and refitted as much as possible.





I made a little oopsie here and started attacking too early. I thought on my opponents turn he'd have to deal with heav snow/blizzard, so I'd be safe from counterattacks - this was not the case. Still though I get some very strong wins.





A lot of his mobile down here have seen better days.

[RedJohn]

Turn 26. Our grand offensive finally begin-






The Germans have, rather unceremoniously, ran away. That's a bit awkward.

But, we make the best of it.







We move up as far as we can with Bryansk front, and move in to envelop with Kalinin front.



Our guards corps see their first battle - a great win.



Yet more brigades to deploy. I think I have like three full fronts units all attached with brigades.



Thankfully blizzard is continuing.




Up north we move in as far as we can and hit a panzer here. About 30 of it's panzers were damaged.




My advisors assured me that these sorts of attacks, even when failing, would sap german MP and stop them being able to retreat far.






I refitted 2 armies in that last screenshot and deployed them east of Kharkov. They're extremely green and have 0 supply, but I wanted to see if I could drive south and cut the rail leading to Rostov - thus dooming the Germans in the caucasus.

[RedJohn]

Turn 27.



Germans continue their retreat up here, abandoning the terrain north of Pskov.



More retreating here.



And of course here.



Less so here. A significant contingent of motorised are guarding Kharkov.



The Don was also fortified. It has level 3 forts pretty much all around.



Also retreating here.



Losses.



Our attacks. We herd a full German ID north of Bryansk, a nice haul.





We continue efforts to snap the jaw shut around Orel.



This plucky tank division cuts the rail leading from Bryansk, which in conjunction with the rail cut on the other side means the Orel salient will be a long way aways from any active depots.






Basically 0 action in the south. I don't have the MPs to move and deliberate attack effectively.



5.1m on map though, alongside an ever weakening Wermacht.

[RedJohn]

Turn 28.



We open with an awful loss. Rommel does well in desert conditions, I suppose. 2.3:1 odds that leave 10k gone. Ouch.








Overview of the front. Still retreating in a lot of places.



Our first haul of winter though. A cool full toe (more or less) division. Nice.



Less nice is blizzard breaking next turn. It'll still be heavy snow in a lot of places however.



We kill Von Kluge. Also forgot to mention but I put Zhukov in charge of Kalinin front.



The maw around Orel tightens.



If you're wondering what's up at Narva, nothing is up. He has a full army here (all divisions) and I'm not breaking that anytime soon.



Honey wake up, more brigades need deployed.



Losses creeping up for both sides.