The bear and the eagle ComradeP vs JAMiAM

[ComradeP]

No JAMiAM.

This should be an interesting game, although the reason why I challenged him is somewhat obsolete by now with the latest changes. I might very well be in serious trouble soon, considering that this is my first game as the Soviets with the latest changes.

[ComradeP]

Checkerboard mania in the northern part of the map. By far not my best checkerboard as it's rather thin, but it's not supposed to do more than slow him down.

I'm still using my standard forward defense/checkerboard mix. If he blows it away, I'll try something else.

[ComradeP]

The central checkerboard is more decent, even though it won't stop him for long. I'm reluctant to fall back as far as Flavio has done this early. It might cost me, but I'm essentially playing for time on a nation-wide scale at the moment.

[ComradeP]

I've placed a carpet in the south, something I normally wouldn't do, but in this case it might have the desired effect of slowing him down quite a bit. It could also end in disaster, but I'll pull back a bit next turn. My opponent has split up some divisions and he needs to advance in the direction of Rovno, to the east, and to the south to cut off the troops escaping from the Lvov/Stanislav/Tarnopol area all in one turn, and he doesn't have all that many mobile forces to do it.

There's nothing in Stanislav, but there's not really much need. If he links up with the Romanians, everything west of the link-up point is dead anyway.

[Senno]

I daresay that he will not have anticipated the Southern plush carpeting strategy. Would give money to see the look on his face when he opens the turn up, lol. And heaven knows the Romanians can't really challenge your south-eastern rear for many moons as they are slow as molasses.

Will be very interested to see how this turns out.

[ComradeP]

Losses were OK. He has pocketed only a fairly small number of divisions thus far, primarily because he pocketed only about half of the divisions of Northwest Front that he could pocket and because he didn't pocket anything at all in the south. I'll probably lose around 20-25 or so divisions from the pockets and the doomed units west of Lvov, I also expect some divisions to shatter.

I've made two successful attacks, one against a security division west of Lvov and one against the Panzer division regiment one hex northeast of Tarnopol (which was initially two hexes northeast of Tarnopol). The NKVD Rifle division in Riga and the two divisions in Minsk both held two attacks. The NKVD division routed on the third.

I've disbanded all fortified regions I could disband and have started disbanding sapper and AA battalions as well as motorcycle regiments. I've send the support units in the soon to be pocketed HQ's near Lvov to STAVKA.

I expect things to be ugly next turn, but the main question will be: how ugly?

I'll detail my future strategy after I've received the next turn. I've spend hours just looking at the map, and I have some new (for me) ideas that I'd like to try.

[ComradeP]

I daresay that he will not have anticipated the Southern plush carpeting strategy. Would give money to see the look on his face when he opens the turn up, lol. And heaven knows the Romanians can't really challenge your south-eastern rear for many moons as they are slow as molasses.

Will be very interested to see how this turns out.

The northern flank near Rovno's shaky, but it will take him serious amounts of MP's just to get there. The divisions that activate on turn 2 also won't really have the MP's to do more than move up and perhaps launch a hasty attack or two. His main problem in the south is his rather narrow advance and that he basically needs to advance in three directions at once to unhinge my defensive position.

He can beat his way into the carpet, but that's fine with me.

I forgot to mention that I have "invaded" Romania by moving an NKVD regiment into a rough hex and a Rifle division into a swamp hex, more to make sure that the Romanians can't concentrate all their divisions on moving a whopping 1 or 2 hexes into Bessarabia than because I intend to stay there.

[Mynok]

Did you use ALL of your rail capacity in the south? Great heavens....some of those units were not in the south to start this turn.

[Klydon]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP


I've disbanded all fortified regions I could disband and have started disbanding sapper and AA battalions as well as motorcycle regiments. I've send the support units in the soon to be pocketed HQ's near Lvov to STAVKA.

And its stuff like this that I am looking forward to learning by watching this AAR and also Flav's as well.

[ComradeP]

Did you use ALL of your rail capacity in the south? Great heavens....some of those units were not in the south to start this turn.

Roughly half.

Industry can no longer be evacuated in June, so I could spend everything on moving troops to the front.

[Mynok]

Buggers....that's going to change German strategy for sure once they recognize what's going on. Crap, I'm glad I saw this. Helps me understand what I'm likely to see in Turn 2.

How many armies did you pull from the Western District?

[Oleg Mastruko]

My money is on Comrade losing 70 units in the Proskurov-Rovno-Vinica area. Unless of course he spends another 70k points railing them back espresso [:D]

[Senno]

Depending on what units under that HQ south-south-west of Proskurov, that's probably where I would head with one prong. He might decide to try to swallow the whole thing with 2nd Panzer thrown in at Kiev, like what's his name tried in the AAR. But that leaves eons for the Soviets to move back as it's an obvious pocket forming in very slow motion.

This seems a new look to me.

I certainly don't see 70+ being swallowed really. Maybe a few in bits and pieces, but no big gulps. And that's all the Soviets need really. Every turn is probably ugly, bit there are degrees of ugly and this one looks ok with the beer goggles on, lol.

[PeeDeeAitch]

I really don't like JAMiAM's opening, but that is me. I don't see the immediate disasters that Oleg sees, rather it seems the germans may well bog down in the south.  As I am usually not right, I fully expect that anything I predict also has an even-odds chance of being 50/50 wrong.

[randallw]

Rail can't evacuate factories on turn 2?  I thought the patch just eliminated the 1st turn evacuation.  ( The statement in this thread was about June, and turn 2 is still in June since turn 1 is just 4 days )

[Encircled]

Kiev Pocket anyone?

Seriously though, that is going to be a tough nut in the south

Liking the Soviet move though, that is really going to cause the Germans problems

[ComradeP]

Obviously, the units are not going to stay in their exact same position for a few turns.

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Mynok, the only Western Front units in the Ukraine are units that routed there I believe, the vast majority of the units you see there are units that start in occupied Poland/the Ukraine. The primarily exceptions are units from North Caucasus front (still on trains, but CV reduction doesn't really matter when they're the last line in a checkerboard/carpet) and the airborne brigades from the Kharkov M.D.

I haven't really done anything extraordinary here, I'm mostly making him pay for his narrow, no pocket, advance in the south.

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The main danger of a forward defence is losing lots of troops, but you can prevent that by good placement. Checkerboards and carpets both more or less guarantee that the number of pocketed forces won't be too substantial on the turn the Axis attacks the position.

I prefer not to use airborne forces at the frontline, as they don't come back if they shatter, but I didn't have a lot of choice this time, at least not in the north.

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randallw, the tester patch notes state: "Restrict industry reallocation before June 26 1941 (2 turn)." which seems like kind of a paradox, as it implies it's only one turn, but states 2 turn (quite possibly "turn 2" is meant) hence why I took the conservative estimate that no evacuation is possible in both June turns, but I might be wrong.

The Soviets have a "surplus" of heavy industry, so the double rail capacity that is now being charged for factory evacuation will just mean I'll evacuate less heavy industry. Mogilev's armaments will be evacuated next turn.

[mmarquo]

Do units refit while still entrained?

[ComradeP]

Previously, you couldn't switch their mode (read/refit/reserve) when they were on trains, but now you can. I think it's pretty gamey and it's not always a good idea as the Soviets. Divisional shells cost barely anything to move, full divisions have a higher load cost.

[mmarquo]

I have noticed that if I entrain a Soviet reinforcement unit set to refit before hand and move it max towards the front, then I can't untrain if there are not enough MPs left; it sits on the tracks until next move and builds up. Is this a "gamey" move? If so, I am willing to bet that most everyone does it unwittingly, and if it is gamey then the game engine should be changed to not allow refit while entrained.
 
Marquo [:)]