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This is my AAR for the Case Blue - Phase I scenario in Gary Grigsby's War in the East. Here's a historical overview from the game: "In February 1942, the German OKH began planning 'Fall Blau' (Case Blue) -- a follow-up campaign for the failed Barbarossa offensive. The Caucasus was to be the principle objective. Phase I of the German plan was to encircle and destroy all Soviet forces west of Voronezh."

Turn 1. I need to take Voronezh and Boguchar and defend Kursk, Kharkov, and Belgorod. Voronezh is on the other side of a river; I'll need to keep this in mind.

I have some panzers and motorized divisions in the north and south to help take the objectives and encircle the enemy on the front.

Let's look at the objectives. It looks like Voronezh and Boguchar don't net many victory points... encircling and destroying the enemy will be essential to achieve a decisive victory. A major victory should never be good enough...

My first plan of attack is simple. Encircle the enemy with my panzers, clearing the way first with my infantry as far as possible. I need to get into the hex north of Voronezh as soon as possible so that I'm not stuck attacking across a river later on. I do an HQ build up to ensure my panzergrenadiers in the north have enough fuel to achieve these objectives the next turn.

I assign support levels of my HQs and have the AI do recon and bomb airfields. I assign pioneer battalions to infantry units attacking across the rivers in the south and to my panzergrenadiers who I'll be using to take cities later on. I want to attack the objectives with my mechanized infantry. They can get to the objectivies quick enough, but don't take penalties for fighting in urban hexes like panzers.

I execute my plan and finish the turn.

My ground loss ratio isn't that great... it's about 2 to 1. That's okay, it will be better once I attack the encircled Soviets.

The Luftwaffe does a good job of bombing enemy airfields.

Here is the beginning of turn 2. I've encircled the Soviets in the front line by pushing forward where I can with infantry, then breaking down panzer corps into regiments and spreading them out to ensure the Soviets won't breakout from the pocket.

My plan is to destroy the encircled Soviets, take Boguchar with my panzergrenadiers in the south, then occupy the hex north of Voronezh with three panzergrenadier divisions.

I'll also encircle the Soviets in the center with my panzers.

I do recon, bomb the airfields, then execute my plan.

Much better... taking out the encircled Soviets brought me from a 2 to 1 to a 10 to 1 ground loss ratio.

Things are looking good with the Luftwaffe too.

The beginning of turn 3, the last turn. I've taken Boguchar, but it's isolated and weakened. I will transport fuel by air to the unit and send an infantry division there too.

I'll also destroy the encircled Soviets and take Voronezh with my panzergrenadiers.

I do recon, bomb airfields, execute my plan, then end the turn.

The game ends! I've managed a tight decisive victory, which start from a 5.0 to 1 VP advantage. You can see the majority of my VPs came from destroyed Soviets. Like I mentioned earlier, encircling the enemy and destroying them here is essential for a decisive victory.

The final map result.

And my favorite screen. I had a lot of fun with this scenario. It's scale and length are similar to Road to Minsk. It's great if you want to play through a scenario in the evening. Unlike Minsk, the scenario takes places in 1942 so the Soviet are stronger and will break out of pockets if you're not careful.

Thanks for reading!

Nice job with AAR!