Road to Leningrad - again

[Seminole]

Opening results in mostly herding instead of much shattering:



Lots of dead Soviet soldiers regardless.



I didn't even look at air losses, I just sent the air force back and will re-org them to come back in a few weeks when I can setup a line.

We are able to link up the pockets and even create a break out, but even though we cut off the German mechanized salient, it has contact with AGC and will not be isolated. Not sure how its supply will function.

We pull forward what defenders we have mobilized at the outset to try and net any roaming panzers in the second week. The routed and depleted units in the Courland pocket are unable to use naval movement to escape.

Overall situation map at the unit level:

[Seminole]

Germans jump forward, just failing to close two pincers on the fleeing Soviet formations.



Ground losses light this week as the Germans are trying to bag as many as possible:



STAVKA orders counter attacks and the Soviets managed to cut enemy lines of communications for several mechanized formations in the vanguard this week:

[Rosencrantus]

Here's the screenshot you asked for.

[Seminole]

Turn 3
AGN closes the cauldron.



Vatutin gathers several rifle divisions to converge upon a lonely German motorized regiment and they succeed in breaking the siege for another week.



We gather the routed formations under unready units while those who won't wilt take up positions against the interior of the pocket.
With luck a lot of these will rout out of the pocket and he'll close on fewer on-map counters than he hoped.

Defensive arrangement against AGN at the end of turn 3:

[Seminole]

Turn 4 weather:



Supply net:



Destroyed units thus far:



Ground losses:



36th Motorized Division encounters difficulty trying liberate Estonia:



Panzer Group 4 makes efforts to cross the Velikaya at two points.
Both Motorized Corps stumble in their initial efforts and require follow up attacks to gain bridgeheads on the eastern banks.




Vatutin slaps a panzer regiment of the 6th Pzr Div back across the river, costing them nearly 1/3rd of their tanks.



The Soviet can't free their trapped units this week, but they are able to maneuver some of the panzers out of supply again.
Unit placement at the end of turn 4:

[Seminole]

Turn 5.

AGN finally cleans up the pocket is has been working on since the opening turn.
Additional space is cleared on the eastern banks of the Velikaya river, and limited moves forward in the Baltics and west of Velikie Luki.

Vatutin's 8th Army hit back against a German infantry regiment, and they are chased back across the river.



Over the next few turns we'll be getting some more map counters to help us cover ground.



Unit level detail map, with TOE reflected by status 70%+ Reserve mode, 55%-60% Ready, <55% Refit:

[Seminole]

Turn 6

Weather:



Summary:



AGN pushes infantry into Estonia while the Panzer clear out around Pskov and encircle the defenders.



Supplies are ferried into Pskov, exceeding 500 tons we expect this to relieve an isolation effects for the next turn and maybe give us an extra week from these defenders.

[Seminole]

Destroyed Units:



Unit TOE% reflected in status - Reserve 70%+, Ready 55%-69%, Refit <55%

[Rosencrantus]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

In the image, how did you bring up those supply numbers in the tooltip? I've played for a long time and I haven't see an option to do that before.

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: Rosencrantus
In the image, how did you bring up those supply numbers in the tooltip? I've played for a long time and I haven't see an option to do that before.

When you are in air supply mode (F9) your mouse hover will display the supply info.

[Seminole]

Turn 7

Weather remains Axis favorable:



The Panzers continue pushing north, trying to flank the Narva river line. In the process trapping several rifle divisions against the lakes.
The move this direction is welcome, even if the progress is not. Although we may be able to leverage this positioning to tie the panzers up for another week or two.



Pskov is steamrolled in a single attack. Not sure what it takes to get an isolated city to hold out for even a week.
I've seen Odessa, Smolensk, and Pskov fall readily even with supplies in depots and seemingly minimal engineering commitment. Soviets in '41 are so incredibly brittle.
This will guide future decisions to abandon hard points prior to the decisive battle in order to preserve forces.



Destroyed units:



Ground losses:



Air losses are brutal. From a VP perspective I'm giving away a lot of points for essentially no gain.
In a campaign there might be some benefit to burning up old airframes to fatigue the Luftwaffe or something, but in the scenario VP context it seems counterproductive to have the VVS on the map.



VP status (almost half the Axis total from Soviet air losses!):



AGN peppers the Red Army across the front, with fighting everywhere by Estonia.
STAVKA orders units to converge on the strung out panzer formations and try to freeze them in place.
Zhukov telephones Vatutin, "You have the wolf by the ears. Don't let go!"



Comparison to historical progress rate (current turn - August 3rd, 1941):



Unit level detail with status - Reserve 70%+, Ready 55%-69%, Refit <55%

Naval infantry brigades screen the approaches to Narva line from Estonia.
Saaremaa island hasn't received supplies, despite the depot being set to '4' the entire game.
Might be a quirk of the campaign supply net, these things are kind of opaque, but I've seen supplies flow there before (no naval interdiction).
This, combined with the defensive effort in Pskov, lead STAVKA to pull the 254th rifle division from Saaremaa to Leningrad instead of risk its loss for no gain.

Towards Velikie Luki the decision is made to abandon the favorable hills south of the Sorot river to better reinforce the Schelon river valley.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

You are playing the AI?

[Seminole]

No, server game.
I don’t like to play the AI for two reasons, it plays by different rules, and the game is too complex to make as good an AI opponent as a human can be.

[Rosencrantus]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

You are playing the AI?

I'm playing against him in the scenario. The scenario now is almost over, just a few more turns left. I made a large mistake at the end but I've learned A LOT from going against seminole in this scenario.

[Rosencrantus]

ORIGINAL: Seminole


Pskov is steamrolled in a single attack. Not sure what it takes to get an isolated city to hold out for even a week.
I've seen Odessa, Smolensk, and Pskov fall readily even with supplies in depots and seemingly minimal engineering commitment. Soviets in '41 are so incredibly brittle.
This will guide future decisions to abandon hard points prior to the decisive battle in order to preserve forces.

From my perspective I had to spend a lot of resources to take out Pskov in a single turn after it became isolated so I would not be upset at your units' performance. I used multiple high CPP units (nearly 100 000 men! and only a 4:1 roll.) each having 15+ CV and committed very large air forces. And for heavily stacked city forts like Odessa, they can only be practically captured if it is isolated via naval interdiction and the VVS will have plenty of opportunities to hinder the LW from Crimea.

[Seminole]

Yeah, in retrospect I should have started changing out leaders earlier. Especially for a fight like this one. I put in Vatutin with 8th Army right away and had him 'fire brigade' for a bit, but this was an important city I planned to lose men for and I should have given them a decent commander.
Subbing in new generals every other turn for the first 8 turns would be the best way to go, you could get your necessary forts and depots in place that way too.

[Seminole]

Turn 8

The Germans use their panzers and infantry to clear space for the salient, while the motorized formations move east up the Schelon river valley, and rush Staraya Russa.

STAVKA orders a pull back to create a new defense in depth. From here we'll try to fight for every inch and not allow anymore operational freedom for the panzers.

[Seminole]

Turn 9.

Summary and battles
Lost Velikie Luki. Should have fortified this city on turn 1.
As it was I rotated units through the railyard here regularly, so there was never much SMP left to build forts.



More reinforcements arriving to help establish a third echelon of defense:



AGN progress is now very close to historical across the sector (August 17th, 1941):



Unit dispositions at the end of turn 9:

[Seminole]

Turn 10.

AGN cleans up the last pocketed units from the Pskov breakout.
Like Lee at Gettysburg they've hit the left wing, the right wing, and now [s]Pickett[/s] PG4 are charging up the middle.
Turn summary and battles:



End of turn CV and unit status reflected - Reserve 70%+, Ready 55%-69%, Refit <55%



STAVKA orders another pull back to straighten the line, giving up the lower sector of the Narva Line:

[Seminole]

Turn 11

Summary at the beginning of turn 11:



Comparison with historical progress (August 31st, 1941):



Unit level detail of the map: