Road to Minsk AAR

[Hard Sarge]

okay this will be a AAR of a simi Training battle that was set up

(I showed some screens but then wanted to wait on some fixes, before I showed more of what was going on)

(like it or not, we still got some warts and all)

so, first off, this is a work in process, what I did, may not be there when it is released, or it may change

if you have questions, feel free to ask

and remember this was a test run

Road to Minsk is a 3 turn battle at the start of the war, using AGC (with one Corps from AGN for the border zone of the map)

you have a number of Victory hexes, some only count when the game is over, others count for each turn (remember there are two turns, to a turn, so VH like this count double)

the OOB numbers at the start (I always forget to take this snap !)

[Hard Sarge]

from the OOB, it looks like the SU has a bigger Airforce then I do, not for long if I have anything to do with it !

first raids

at top of the screen you got your modes or what not, click on airfield attack and that is the mode you are in (remember to go back to the first mode to get back to Movement)

find a target airfield you want to raid (you can now either hit A, or hit auto and the AI will plan out and make all of your attacks for you, or you can just right click on the target, and the AI will attack just that one target, or you can Shift Right Click on the target and it will bring up a screen with Air units that can attack, I like to control my attacks, so I do the last, normally the AI will do a good job of it, but I don't like some of the units it will pick for the missions, that I wouldn't use)

also, before you do this, it may be a good idea to look at the Air Doc screen, and see if you want to make any changes, I want everything I can put into the air, in the air, so I lower most of the settings to let me get more planes into the battle (you tend to pay for it later on, but...)

in this raid, I don't want my Stuka's attacking the airfields, or my biplanes either !, so tell them to sit this one out, I got some Air up, as the Russian Fighters will be up

goals of the raids ?

1 kill planes
2 damage planes, damage planes can't fly away if airfield is overran
3 burn up the number of missions the defenders can fly (with in reason, there are only so many missions you can fly, before using up all of your fuel/range limits)

there is a deep SU Fighter field, that can cause trouble to your deep raids that your fighters can fly

(so, idea is to try to get deeps raids that your fighters can fly with, and try to weaken that field this way)

[Hard Sarge]

oops, also make sure you set your fighter bombers to fly as bombers !

[Hard Sarge]

towards the bottom of the screen (well middle of the bottom)

you see where it says FIGHTER, click on that and it will change to bomber, so your fighter bomber is now able to attack ground targets

[Hard Sarge]

and the results of the first raid

top left arrow, those are SU fighters that are in the air, the bottom arrow is what is at that airfield (which some of those planes can be in both places)

the other arrow is showing the defenders that were in the air

first turn has massive surprise rules, you will not get these kinds of results after the first turn, you will still know down a lot of planes in the air, but much HARDer to get big numbers on the ground

now it is working over everything that you can work over (you keep the Russian on the ground, he don't mess with your attacks !)

[Hard Sarge]

getting late in the raids now, I was able to move one of my fighter fields forward some, and now have some 110's that can fly deep, still can't get to "bad" base, but by hitting the others that they can reach, they can wear out the enemy fighters (lost 9 bombers to them one raid !!!)

the big bomber bases are deep

also, after the first couple of raids, you can lower the amount of fighters you are adding, you not going to be getting many SU fighters into the air by then

[Hard Sarge]

also, by that shot, you can see how my ready numbers are, and how much the units have been flying (and the wear and tear of flying missions, some of those Gruppen are getting pretty small)

bottom of that screen says, I have 46 fighters and 153 bombers ready, but that don't mean that is how many I am going to send out

(skipping ahead of myself, once I got a break though, I was able to move some of my airfields, now I got something that can fly with my bombers all the way, and I shut down the fighter base, along with the bomber bases)

[Hard Sarge]

when my raids are over and my movement and overruns finished, I think I can claim AS over the center front

[Hard Sarge]

this a placeholder right now, but what we may be having more of later on

smiling Albert don't look too happy in this one

[Hard Sarge]

(and as testers and player are all different, I think I spend much more time on the air side of the game then the others, so that is why I talk more about it

and this is one of the reasons for the raids, there is another big base more to the south, and a couple deep

which, once those were done, I also did a ground attack, but didn't have much left of my main bombers, so was a weak showing, so didn't take a snap shot of it

killed a few men, but caused some distruption to the target

[Hard Sarge]

ahhh, the zoom level, to get the whole map in, you got to go to the next smaller zoom, sorry about that, but this is the full map and the VH's you are trying for

(interesting, in the real game, I use one of the Panzer Corps to drive far to the north of this part of the map, to cut the riverline) OOPS

and as you see, to the south is the Marsh, so a good part of your attack is going to be channeled, but that don't stop the Russian from using the swamps, so you have to clear it

[Hard Sarge]

opening moves in the north, I bring up some of the troops in the rear to clear my front, try to keep AGN to the north of my main troops

I try to hold off my Armor unit I know what I got going on

I am planning on going for the big pocket this time around

so, need fancy movement, I want to trap what I Route from the front, and not just over run them, so want to see what I got and what I need

[Hard Sarge]

oh and just in case, I am testing, not playing, so I do not use FOW, I want to see what the AI is up to

[Hard Sarge]

and the opening moves in the south, bring up what is deep in my lines to make the opening, move what is upfront, to clear out the area

the idea is to open the lanes for the Armor, the Armor will crush almost anything it comes across, but it burns up MP and supply, and adds Fat to the unit, you want them to explot, not to fight (but they are the best fighting units you have)

[Hard Sarge]

and again, those troops across from the pocket do not want to fight, they fight, they just route the enemy, and then you got to chase them down later, you want to trap them (well, I do)

the GD makes a dash though the gap and joins hands with the Motor Divs in the north, the pocket is closed (not finished, but closed, to to spead out the gap now, and get units in place for the kill later on)

you also see my 110 field (since it is early it is out in the open, once the rest of the troops move, it will go into protected mode (never leave your airfields in the open, or upsupported (unless deep behind your lines !!!!)

[Hard Sarge]

got the north flank of Minsk now, this way the Enemy won't be able to just form a line that I have to break into (I can break anything they put up, with in reason, but it takes time and movement, I can't afford to be bogged down, fighting, 3 turns is not much, and also am going to be out of supply soon)

[Hard Sarge]

okay have moved my Armor from the south, trying to keep my Corps simi close

Minsk is in trouble, got a good pocket formed, got some smaller ones

(but to be Honest, Minsk is the easy one, it is the last 3 that count !)

you may be able to see how I tried to leave some of the routed alone, and stuck in the pockets

[Hard Sarge]

so, that is about it for turn 1

losses for the my side of the turn

[Hard Sarge]

and the kills, not much

[Hard Sarge]

Victory point status at the end of turn 1

looks good