FALL WEISS II. TAIFUN vs BPINisBACK. To the last man...

[Taifun]

This new AAR will be dealing about our current game "Fall Weiss II" (version 9.1). Me as Taifun will command the Axis forces and BPINisBACK the Allies. We are both old hands I suppose... furthermore BPINisBACK is well know for his latest AARs against Crispy... a heavy WEIGHT!! and he knows well FW II.

and I never played this version before so I will it discover during the game. Please, keep in mind that English is not my mother tongue... so... I will make grammatical mistakes for sure! Please fell free to comment or ask any question. I will give a few ideas of my Strategy during the play...

I will start with a brief review of the previous turns and then our "almost current" (as this AAR will be very graphic with almost no fog of war) and delayed a few turns.
I have been studying WWII for almost 25 years so I tried to be as historically accurate as possible. Poland fell in 3 turns, France was invaded in May 1940 as fell about beginning of August. The whole BEF was destroyed except the HQ which escaped to England although damaged. Then started the battle of Britain... heavy air fighting, no invasion and the end the British Empire lost the Bomber Command Wing, a BB, a CA and a CL. The Greeks and Yugoslavia are fighting in our side... In Africa the Italians went as far as the Alamein, activated the Iraqis, and the withdrew to Marsha Matruk.
It is now 29 May 1941. Barbarrossa just started...

[Taifun]

Convoy losses so far... the British subs are alive near Norway ...

[Taifun]

The fact that Iraq was on our side since so early has hurt the British economy greatly. Let's take a look at the MPPs...

[Taifun]

Germany has invested greatly in Diplomacy and Research...

[Taifun]

This is the tempo used... I managed to arrive well equipped for Barbarrossa

[Taifun]

This is the beast to kill!! At least 5 rows of fortifications protect the road to Moscow and Leningrad is as well very powerfully defended... Must have at least 2 teams of engineers working...

[Taxman66]

Did he build an extra ENG unit?

[crispy131313]

Great! I will be watching this!

[Taifun]

I guess he did build an extra ENG from the very beginning...

[Taifun]

As it is critical for the German player I will explain the opening moves of operation Barbarossa with a great deal of detail. During the winter 1940 the OKW initially planed for the attack to begin in May but very interestingly in this mod the research advances are quite slow and I was missing the necessary upgrades in Infantry Weapons and in Ground Attack Weapons (I wanted level 2 for both of them). The attack was then set for the 20 June. Then unexpectedly I had a research breakthrough for Infantry Weapons and got finally both in April.
The plans were hurriedly updated for an attack next turn in May. Lacking the necessary MPPs (commitments in other fronts...) only about a third of my forces got upgraded... that left many bombers and tanks at tech level 0. Worst still the Paras could not get into position and ready for a jump and it was decided to upgrade first and then jump in the second turn. OKW decided that an early attack in May justified the lack of preparation...

The huge front was divided into 3 army groups as usual. Instructions for the three army groups generally aimed at breaking through the Soviet front and preventing an enemy withdrawal.

[Taifun]

Army group North is the strongest of all 3. It consist of 27 units but in the other hand it is the least advanced technologically and has many new recruited forces. It consist of 4 INF Armies, 4 INF Corps, 3 Panzer Corps, 2 Mech Corps, 1 Panzer div, 1 Mech div, 1 Heavy Artillery, 2 HQ, 3 Fighter wings, 4 Tactical, 2 Med Bombers wings. In the first turn they have to conquest the heavily fortified city of Daugaupils and advance towards Riga and Polotsk. It has many Soviet troops to destroy in this first turn.

[Taifun]

Army group Center is the weakest of all 3. It consist of 20 units but in the other hand it contains the best troops. It consist of 3 INF Armies, 3 INF Corps, 2 Panzer Corps, 1 Mech Corps, 1 Heavy Artillery, 2 Para units, 1 Mountain div, 2 HQ, 2 Fighter wings, 2 Tactical, 1 Med Bombers wings. In the first turn they have to conquest the heavily fortified city of Przemysl and advance towards the general direction of Kiev. It has many Soviet troops to destroy in this first turn also deep into enemy territory.

[Taifun]

Army group South consist of 27 units from many different nationalities. It has 7 INF Armies, 5 INF Corps, 2 Panzer Corps, 3 HQ, 1 Recon, 1 Mountain div, 1 Fighter wings, 1 Tactical, 1 Med Bombers wings. In the first turn they have to conquest city of Kishinev and advance towards Dnepropetrovsk.

Thus 69 units will form the initial Barbarossa wave. More reinforcements will follow as they are available.

[Taifun]

Army Group North was able to take the heavily fortified city of Daugaupils and destroy the greater part of the frontier troops. Riga was not possible to be isolated... For the next turn (20 June) they are tasked to take the city of Polotsk and continue with the destruction of the remaining troops around Byalistok . They will isolate all the cities south of Minsk with the help of the paras

[Taifun]

Army groups Center and South took the cities of Przemysl and Kishinev and continued their advance East. Almost all the frontier troops were destroyed though a panzerkorps from army group South helped around Lwow. For the 20 June they are tasked with the isolation of Red Army troops defending the approaches to Kiev...

[Taifun]

At the end of this 20 June the city of Polotsk fell to army group North after heavy air bombardment and assault. Riga has been besieged and the 5 remaining identified frontier units are now isolated from the rear areas. As the supply situation around the recently captured Polotsk is not good to continue the drive east, for the next turn Ostrov will be attacked, swinging North the main panzer forces. The heavily defended city of Minsk can not be taken right now with the forces available. It is becoming evident that the Soviets preferred a defence in depth and placed most of their armies back in the hinterland... To help improve the supply issues plaguing the army group 2 new HQ had been recalled. The Greek HQ will help in the siege of Riga and von Kluge has arrived from army group Center...

[Taifun]

South of the Pripyat marshes both army groups acting in conjunction managed to isolate 6 Red Army units. We expect the besieged city of Lwow to fall next turn and continue our drive east towards the Dnepr. Odessa will be sieged under Rumanian orders...

[BPINisBACK]

Remember Sun Tzu, my friend:
"Si haces que los adversarios no sepan el lugar y la fecha de la batalla, siempre puedes vencer"

[Taifun]

What BPINisBACK means is that my AAR is only 2 turns behind the real turn... So that he is given all the info about my troops mouvements. I though that this was an interesting way to start Barbarossa for new players to see the mechanics of supply. I agree that it is very risky so I will back up a turn and so from the next AAR 3 turns will separate de "live turn" to the AAR. When positional warfare arrives at the East front I will use fog of war of course...

My friend take this extra info as using ULTRA from the ENIGMA decoded messages...

[nnason]

Yes but I believe the Allies never shared Ultra with the USSR! [:D]