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Connect Four Team Game

This is the AAR for both sides of the Connect Four Team game

The signup and rules for the game can be found here

Highlights of the game set up are

Campaign 1941-45
-fog of war
-random weather
-+1 Soviet bonus
-mild blizzard

There are two other team games currently taking place mentioned in these forums. This one is more focused on new or inexperienced players of the game. This team game does not have Supreme commanders but each team can have a more experienced Chief of Staff. However they are restricted by the rules from combat air missions or "pushing the units."

Also unlike previous team games the use of Discord has been built in from the start for all communications and all players must use it.

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Unfortunately this game had to be abandoned due to trolling problems later. It is a shame as some of us put a lot of work into making this one work. The AAR below is still available to read. However I would recommend going through other team game AARs like the 8MP team game or the 2x3+ team game instead.

Teams

At the start of this game the team sides are

Axis
North: Neogodhobo
Centre & Air: Searry
South: Joneleth
Chief of Staff: Telemecus

Soviet
North: DadeCariaga
Centre: thedoctorking
South: ICalli
Chief of Staff: SparkleyTits

Axis North Turn 1

Neogodhobo
My idea about Leningrad, well , to capture it.

Neogodhobo
I won't be making any pockets. ...My goal is not to eliminate Soviet division, but to get to Leningrad
After this Il clean house

Neogodhobo
The main plan was not to go to Riga for North.

Axis Centre Turn 1

The Plan



The Result

Axis South Turn 1

More than two corps of 2nd Panzer Group were lent to the south - in particular with the hope of trapping the units around Shepetovka.

Axis Air Turn 1

Searry
I throught kabuki was just something you threw in for laughs

The Kharkhov tank factory and Osinovets port were also bombed

Axis Allocations Turn 1

For information only.

Connect 4 AAR: Turn 1
Turn one saw a dramatic departure from the standard Axis opening. There has been a lot of grousing on the forums lately about the stereotyped nature of the opening attack, with debate worthy of chess books about precisely which route German armored corps should take to isolate and kill the largest number of Soviet units and make the most mileage consistent with safety and good supply delivery later. Our Axis opponents decided to abandon that stereotyped strategy in favor of an extremely aggressive set of moves, declining to seal pockets in order to gain as much ground as possible with their armor.
The Germans made none of the standard pockets in the Baltic States. The Soviet forces in northern Lithuania were unmolested, and Riga was still in our hands. The German Panzer Group in the north crossed the Dvina at Livani, downriver from Daugavpils, with the apparent intention of moving either towards Pskov directly or along the Riga-Velikie Luki rail line to support Army Group Center’s moves. It is possible that the Axis has decided to ignore the northern sector altogether in favor of an immediate move on Moscow. Another German Panzer Group ended up just south of the Dvina at the northern end of Army Group Center’s line, possibly aiming at Polotsk but more likely intending a move southeastward towards Smolensk.

In the center, similarly, the German armored moves were very aggressive. One Panzer Corps ended up concentrated in the vicinity of Voropaevo, along the rail line from Vilnius to Smolensk. The other is spread out from Baranovichi to north of Minsk, creating a secondary pocket north of Novogrudek in addition to the usual first-turn pocket around Bialystok. In a remarkable development, though, neither of these pockets is sealed, permitting the escape of at least some of those units. The normal Axis priority on destroying Soviet units has apparently been tossed to the wind, replaced with a priority on taking territory. Perhaps the expectation is that those units will be rounded up in subsequent turns without the need for the intervention of the armor.
The Germans made a number of fuel resupply drops to the armor in this region, leading me to suspect that they intend another aggressive drive forward through the land bridge.

In the south, a similar pattern emerged. German armored forces pushed forward along three main axes, attempting a pocket around Shepetovka as well as seizing extensive real estate in central Ukraine. The northernmost pocket, around Kovel, was solidly sealed with infantry, but none of the others were closed beyond the possibility of reopening.

The Axis first-turn air attacks were moderately successful. Only about 4100 airframes were destroyed, but many of those destroyed were first-line models. The Luftwaffe obviously had good intelligence on where our best planes were to be found, and sacrificed overall destructiveness for removing the units most threatening to them.
The Germans also made a first-turn strategic bombing raid on Osinovets, the Lake Ladoga port that provides supply to Leningrad if it is cut off by land. This would tend to suggest that they are planning to move on Leningrad instead of the push directly on Moscow that I feared.

We didn’t do much that was unexpected, I suppose. In the north, the Northwest Front units that were spared in Lithuania retreated to the vicinity of Riga. Those that could be moved by sea made their way to safer ports to the north. We put a significant force into Riga itself with the hope of either holding the city until mud or at least forcing Army Group North to divert some of its armor to take the place. The listed defensive CV of the city is now 63, at fort level 2 and with a screen of divisions around it preventing direct assault. No infantry is near enough to participate in an attack, so German armor would have to turn away from the eastward or northeastward routes to take the place next turn. And turn after that it will be even stronger.
Northern Front consolidated its position around Pskov. There is almost nothing to the south between there and Polotsk, but the terrain is awful and I can’t see unescorted armor plunging into the swamps on turn 2. There is a reserve corps on the direct rail line to Velikie Luki if the AGN armor decides to take that route.

In the center, we broke the pockets and lightly pocketed a German Panzer Corps in our turn. Our pockets will not slow the Germans too much, but with their command interfered with, they will not make admin rolls as easily, and so they will have a few less movement points than they otherwise would have on turn 2. And without fuel deliveries on turn two, hopefully they will have a lot fewer movement points on turn 3 than they otherwise would have. We brought in a couple of reserve corps to strengthen the Polotsk and Ulla River lines ahead of the expected German push in that area. We left two airborne brigades to defend Minsk and pulled back to a screen in the swamp region. It is possible that the armor near Baranovichi intends to drive southeastwards into the swamps to cut off the Soviet forces there. I’d actually be happy if that happened because it is almost never a good thing to send armor into swamps. I remember my first pvp game of this, against Twigster last winter, when he threw two panzer armies into a grinding offensive through the swamps along the shore of Lake Ladoga, trying to take the ports and cut off Leningrad.

The south was the sector where we were the most imperiled, and where we sent most of our reserve forces. The very aggressive German push along the southern border of the marshes opens up the possibility of armored forces cooperating with Army Group Center to cut off our troops there. We opened all the pockets, but our forward forces are in danger of being pocketed again, with a broad sweep to the south quite conceivable. Probably, every unit west of Zhitomir and north of the Romanian border will die eventually, just like those guys in the Bialystok region. But delaying their deaths for a turn means that German attackers will be delayed getting to the places they want to be. The clock is ticking.
One major advantage of being able to break these pockets is that we were able to withdraw all the SU assigned to those forward headquarters. Something like 50 experienced SU that would otherwise have become casualties were sent back to STAVKA. This will make a big difference to our resilience going forward.

Our losses this turn were moderate: 339,000 and 9 divisions. I would say that for a 6/22/41 turn, this was good for the USSR. I expect we’ll be meeting the western Allies on the Seine instead of the Elbe in 1945.

Concentrating on the actual good AC was the goal. I don't know how effective it is to kill the obsolescent types as they look like free kills for the Germans to me?

Riga--Odessa on the Baltic.

A tale of two cities.

ORIGINAL: iwolfhound

Riga--Odessa on the Baltic.

A tale of two cities.

As you'll see, they ended up getting them both though a little behind schedule.

Axis North Turn 2

Neogodhobo
Smoke plume will cover the Eastern sky

ORIGINAL: Searry

Concentrating on the actual good AC was the goal. I don't know how effective it is to kill the obsolescent types as they look like free kills for the Germans to me?

I think you get morale and experience for killing I-153's and such. Also, those squadrons will continue to exist and can be re-equipped with better aircraft. In the last two games I've started as the Germans, I have concentrated on just killing as many Soviet a/c as I can.

We've actually been getting pretty good mileage out of our I-153 and I-16 squadrons. Right now, turn 7, there's a squadron with 71 experience and 20-odd kills that's flying I-153's (it is in Northern/Leningrad Air Command and shot down a bunch of your unescorted level bombers, so special case). The game doesn't seem to be in a hurry to upgrade them for free and we have plenty of uses for AP so we haven't done it manually.