FITE 2 -Søren (Sovjet) and Kristian (Axis)

[Teufeldk]

Hi all.

This is my first AAR, and as everybody else I have too little time on my hands, so the turns will be done in bits

First is the northern sector:

The effort to secure the railroad to Riga is going as planned, and the hope to capture Riga by turn 3 is still alive.

More to the south the Germans breaks through at Jurbarkas and have surrounded large parts of the 3rd Russian Mech corps.
Note the 59th Panzer Aufkl. Abt. that are racing towards Daugavpils, in hope of taking the Russians by surprise and capturing the bridge intact.

[Teufeldk]

Still Turn 1:

Center

The Germans capture Vilnyus in the drive for Minsk, and encircle as many Russians as possible in the Bialystok pocket.



South
In the South the Germans capture Dubno, Brody and encircle the Russian divisions at Lutsk, while the rest of the Army Group slowly moves towards Lvov.

[Teufeldk]

Turn 2:

North
After having secured an undamaged railway almost all the way to Jelgava, a fresh Panzer Divison is moved to the railhead. The capture of Riga in turn 3 seems inevitable.

The Germans also succeds in taking Daugavpils with the bridge intact, more or less coping Von Mansteins feat in real life.



Center
On the Center front the drive for Minsk continues, while the Russians tries to slow down the advance by placing troops at important villages and at road and rail intersections.



South
In the south the drive for Zhitomir continues. Here the Russians are also doing their best to slow down the advance.

[docgaun]

Soviets comments:
AGHHH, THE PAIN!.
The German advance is incredible fast, and the front line troops are all but a few obliterated the first turns. There is really not much to put in the way. I am trying to take out as many bridges as I can retreating, but the troops that can move an reach bridges just aren't there. The airforce is gone, however that's not entirely a bad thing.

[fogger]

are you guys playing with the changes as at 25 May?

[Teufeldk]

Yes, we are.

We are currently at turn 10, so I am a bit behind with the AAR. But I will get it updated sometime

[Teufeldk]

Turn 3

North

At the start of the turn the newly railed Panzer Division sets out to capture Riga, only to discover that OKH forgot to send Bridging engineers to the front. The turn ends with the division getting an involuntary rest on the west side of the river Dvina (and some poor logistic officer was court martialed).

At Daugavpils the infantry are catching up the recon units, that drives ahead into Russia.



Center
The drive for Minsk goes on, with the Russians trying to slow down the advance



South
In the south the drive for Zhitomir continues.

[Teufeldk]

From turn 4-10 it was a steady advance to the east with the Russians trying to slow down the advance everywhere, while preparing the expected "Søren"-line.
The following key/major cities very captured during those turns:

Turn 4:
- Riga
Turn 5:
- Polotsk
- Minsk
Turn 6:
- Dubossary
Turn 7:
- Zhitomir
Turn 8:
- Berezovka
Turn 9:
- Pskov
- Orsha
- Mogilev
Turn 10:
- Kiev
- Gomel
- Vitebsk
- Velikie Luki
- Tallin

[Teufeldk]

On turn 11 the Germans arrives at the Russian Defensive line at Velikie Luki.

And the tired German units make an immediate (but unsuccessful) attempt to break the line.

[Teufeldk]

On Turn 12 Smolensk is captured and more of the Russian Defensive line is discovered east of Smolensk.

The German plan is to attack the line as soon as possible, to get the Russians defending as quickly as possible.


At Velikie Luki a small bridgehead is established across the river.

[Teufeldk]

In turn 13 the attack east of Velikie Luki continues. Further to the north the line seems poorly defended the Germans are trying to advance in that area too.

[Teufeldk]

The original German plan was to attack east towards Vyasma, and from there on to Moscow.

Heavy Russian resistance in the area was expected, but the first attacks in the area reviled that the Russians forces in the area had far more artillery support than expected, and a break through in the area was considered very difficult to achieve.

Therefor a new plan was formed. The drive towards Moscow would be launched over the Desna River north of Bryansk towards Kaluga. The area was chosen because it expected to be less heavily defended than the Bryansk and Smolensk area, while still being close to Moscow. The attack date was set to Turn 19.

The preparation time was used to move all available mech, mot and panzer units to the area. Most SS divisions were also moved to the preparation area. The attacking troops would be supported by all available rail-guns, and huge amounts of ordinary artillery. In addition the Luftwaffe was order to rest and prepare for the assault.

Planned attack towards Moscow:



In the mean the the Germans launched diversion attacks towards Rzhev and Demyansk, in order to drain the Russian reserves.


Turn 14 to 18 Attacks towards Rzhev

Turn 14


Turn 15


Turn 16


Turn 17


Turn 18


Turn 14 to 18 - Attacks towards Demyansk

Turn 14


Turn 15


Turn 16


Turn 17


Turn 18

[Teufeldk]

Btw, each post here will be of one or a few parts of the front. It is a very large scenario, so showing progress everywhere each turn is too much work. But if anyone have an interest in any specific details about anything just let me know.


Turn 19

This was gonna be the big breakthrough through the Russian line that had been prepared for the last few turns. The amount of defense on the other side of the river was totally unknown, but the best guess was a defense line 2 hexes deep as had been encountered elsewhere.

The breakthrough was a huge success. The Germans did indeed encounter a defense line 2 hexes deep, but was able to eradicated it thanks to the commitment of 8 panzer regiments in the attack, and thanks to lots of artillery and bombers in direct support. The only unit left of the original defense lines was the 43rd Tank Regiment.

Below are 2 pictures. The first is to give an indication of the amount of units that had been massed in support of the attack.
The next picture is the end of turn 19 showing the result of the breakthrough attack. A 10 hex wide hole have been made in the Russian defense line. The road to Moscow seemed open. But of course the Russian was not gonna give up without a fight

[fogger]

Can you show us your supply levels in the above picture.
thanks
john

[Teufeldk]

Sure. It is below.

Note that supply is greatly enhanced since I have a 150% shock bonus this turn because I took 3 designated cities by turn 18. The down side is that 1 or 2 turns after I will get a one turn drastic supply drop.

As you probably know there are 4 of these shock turns in the scenario (in turn 7, 13, 19 and 25). The German player get these if he holds certain towns the previously turn (6, 12, 18 and 24)

The main reason I chose to launch the attack on turn 19, was because I knew that on that turn I would get the 150% shock bonus.

[Teufeldk]

This test game ended after the German turn 26, with a Russian surrender.

The test showed that the game is more or less balanced (at least in 41), and that it is possible for the Germans to break through a Russian defense line. But a few corrections have been made for the new version.

We will begin a new game shortly, and Søren has promised to play better

[governato]

Could you guys show the losses for both sides? Tanks and planes mostly as there are good figures for those...Tx!

[Teufeldk]

Of course.

We have begun a new game, so most of my time is spent on that, but I will put the losses up soon

[Teufeldk]

This is the German losses at the end of turn 25


German Inf losses:



German Panzer losses:


German Plane lossed: