GPW v5 6 player - Ger+Sov Souther Theater

[Vic]

IN THIS AAR BOTH GERMAN SOUTHERN ARMYGROUP AND SOVIET SOUTHERN FRONTS WILL POST

The first turn the German Armygroup South was unstoppable.

[Vic]

On the second turn the Germans Armygroup South just raced along crushing anything trying to escape east.

[Vic]

On the third turn my initial frontline armies were as good as destroyed. German Armygroup South also took the beautifull port city of Odessa.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Week 1]

FYI - we are posting our AAR posts "late" in this particular AAR - i.e. I don't post screenshots until a couple turns later so that Vic and I can both read the AAR w/o seeing directly what the other side is doing at the moment.

I approached the AGS w/ the philosophy of trying to not only create pockets of OOS Soviets but also to infiltrate the front lines instead of just bashing through them. I'm not really sure yet whether this was a good idea or not. I give the Soviets a lot of PP by disbanding units, the ability to cause some potential supply problems, and perhaps I'll have to clean up those troops later if I don't just kill them w/ the combat bonus on turn 1. However it did allow me to make rather rapid progress and I think cut off some Soviets who otherwise would probably have escaped.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Week 1]
The same philosophy was applied for the Romanians even more than for AGS - so not many Soviet casualties were caused but lots of infiltration/penetration was accomplished.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Week 2]
The Empire Strikes Back

The Soviets didn't sit quietly in their pockets - they launched some vicious counterattacks nearly wiping out one german division and badly hurting another.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 2]
In the south the Romanian 4th army along w/ German 11th army push across the Dniester and approach Odessa after some fighting.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Week 3]

Week 3 sees a fairly significant Soviet army near Ternapol surrounded and wiped out while lead elements of 1st Panzer Army approach Kiev.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 3]
Farther south the German 11th army and Romanian 4th army face some decisions about where to go and where to plan crossings of the Dniepr. I normally post this AAR about 3 turns behind the game action so that if an opponent reads it they won't have up to date info. However in this case I'm posting the last turn I did so I won't speculate here about what the Romanian 4th Army and German 11th Army might do.....

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 4]
The 4th week of the campaign is mostly a race for the Dneipr river.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 4]
The Romanians race forward as well - they'll miss the move bonus that they got for 4 turns - next turn it's down to a crawl, and Russia is very very big. For example the 49 PP Romanian infantry unit northeast of Pervomaisk will take about a month to march to Dnepropetrovsk - ouch!!

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 5]
AGS forward elements encounter fortified Soviets in the suburbs of Kiev - this will not be easy!

Soviet air fights the Luftwaffe and Romanian air force over Kiev with (surprisingly) the battle ending in a draw.

German 6th Army will probe the Kiev defenses while 1st Panzer Army continues southeast toward Cherkassy.

German 17th Army and Romanian 3rd Army lag well behind the vanguard.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 5]

Kherson falls to Romanian 4th Army while German 11th Army approaches Krivoi Rog. At Krivoi a decision will have to be made about whether to drive farther south toward Nikopol or turn northeast toward Dnepropetrovsk.

[Barthheart]

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

[AGS Turn 5]
....
Soviet air fights the Luftwaffe and Romanian air force over Kiev with (surprisingly) the battle ending in a draw.

....

A draw?!? the Luftwaffe lost 9 fighters, 3 level and 2 dive bombers to 9 Soviet fighters..... I hate to see what you call a loss....[X(]

[jjdenver]

ORIGINAL: Barthheart

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

[AGS Turn 5]
....
Soviet air fights the Luftwaffe and Romanian air force over Kiev with (surprisingly) the battle ending in a draw.

....

A draw?!? the Luftwaffe lost 9 fighters, 3 level and 2 dive bombers to 9 Soviet fighters..... I hate to see what you call a loss....[X(]

LOL - ok I agree it was a loss. I was writing this in a hurry and just saw 9 fighters vs 9 fighters. We're on Turn 10 now so that was a long time ago and I didn't really remember what happened exactly - sorry!!!

As you'll see in further AAR posts it only gets worse for the Luftwaffe.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 6]

6th Army launches some assaults against the Kiev defenses and forces the Soviets back a hex - but fierce Soviet counterattacks with heavy artillery and armor support hit the 6th Army hard.

Farther west - some divisions have been sent to investigate Partisan activity which has forced all supply and reinforcements to funnel through Romania. It turns out that Soviet conscripts have shown up in cities which were not taken by Germany on the way east. Partians and small Soviet pockets are also active. I'm not sure whether Vic is dropping supplies to them or not but they have closed all roads east so something has to be done.

[jjdenver]

[AGS Turn 6]

Cherkassy is taken but the bridges over the Dniepr have been destroyed and the Soviets have defenses along the river's east bank.

Things are fairly quiet for 11th Army and Romanian 4th Army as they advance (at their snail's pace).

[Vic]

Soviet Perspective Round 4 - 6

The Germans advance towards and up to the Dnjepr river, reaching Kiev, in the north first, but not breaking through our strong defensive positions there. At end of round 6 the Dnjepr line has not been broken yet. But formations the size of 10-20 rifle are no match for the german armored divisions

Positive news: All Soviet airforces had been centeralized in Kiev and that move paid off. The Red Airforce managed to give the Luftwaffe a bloody nose!

However overall situation is grim. Only in the Kiev area our forces are strong enough to keep the front for a longer period of time. We lost virtually all initial troops in the first rounds, and rebuilding goes very very slowly. I think it is unavoidable we will have to give way to the german panzers when they cross the Dnjepr south of Kiev...

Kind regards,
vic

[jjdenver]

[TURN 7 AGS view]
1st Pz Army forces a bridgehead at Cherkassy, forcing the Soviet defenders back to the east. They had skirted the Kiev defenses and now the plan is to drive north with them to cut off Kiev. They'll be backed by the 3rd Romanian army - only because it's farther east than infantry elements of 1 Pz Army and 17th Army.

[jjdenver]

[Turn 7 AGS]

11th Army, composed of mostly Romanian divisions but a couple of German divisions, pushes toward the Dniepr bridge at Dnepropetrovsk but scouts report heavy soviet defenses on the east side of the river.

Along the Black Sea - the Romanian 4th Army pushes on Perakop which is heavily defended.