"I have no idea what I'm doing" Bread (Axis) v Fracas (Soviet)

[RedJohn]

41 start game, just gave back turn 41 to fracas. I start this AAR because I haven't really seen a 42 offensive in a H2H yet on the forums.



Pictured is turn 38 start. He moved units across the gulf of finland, to Osel and that other island, and cheekily occupied a bunch of territory. No major damage, all units were captured. It did however force my reserve panzers in Konigsberg to leave their cushy seats and brave the horrid snow. One particularly sad moment was when a panzer regiment went from 100% TOE to 0% TOE, as literally every single tank got damaged in the logistics step despite them being on rails.

Winter as a whole has been a mixed bag. The south held extremely well, with us holding rostov, but we were pushed back to Pskov in the north. Our Moscow thrust held for the most part, as did our gains around Tula. Level 3 forts helped with this, but we were forced to put panzers on the front.

Crimea was not taken. We advanced close to Sevastapol, but mud was hitting and I decided to retreat to the entrances for an easier defence.

[RedJohn]

OOB/Losses/air losses.

Probably my best barbarossa ever. I had 2 other games reach 42 offensive season, but in both I sent my panzers/motorised back to the reserves for winter which drained them of trucks and subsequently I was unable to get anything more than a corps to get more than 20 MP, which sort of killed the game.



He had about 500k+ men in transfer, the actual OOB at around turn 41 is 5.3m~ give or take 200k.

[RedJohn]

These particular pockets I think saved winter for me. It was a gamble for both of us, and had I been unable to close the pockets I would've had to retreat en masse in north and centre.

[loki100]

should be interesting - clearing out that pocket in the rough terrain will take some time but you are well placed (at the worst) to push the HWM to a level that will be a challenge for the Soviets to match

looked like an entertaining gambit using the Estonian islands, I tend to make sure I hold the port on the southern one but never bother to clear out the smaller one

[Beethoven1]

Here's a pretty great screenshot Bread sent me a while back of that pocket (at least I think it is the same one).

You really have to love, on the one hand, the stubbornness of the Soviets in refusing to evacuate or retreat in any way from the obvious massive salient. And, you have to respect, on the other hand, the grim determination of the Germans to keep plowing around the edges to seal off the salient just before winter hits, knowing that if mud/winter hits without it being closed, they will be in big trouble.

[X(]

[RedJohn]

The pocket was closed many moons ago Loki, though it did take a very significant amount of time yeah.

Posting turn 40, just handed turn 42 back to Fracas. I will probably be delaying it a bit more as weather turns to clear to hide my intentions, just in case he's viewing.

No attacks across the front. The incursion from Osel was crushed, but annoyingly a naval invasion just north east of Odessa went ahead last turn. I had to pull the Italian mountaineers, a security division I was going to send elsewhere, and the Africa mot div that just so happened to be on rails in the area, to address the issue.

We are also getting desperately needed reinforcements, and the Soviets are hunkering down in preparation for the campaign season.

[RedJohn]

As a sneak peak, just look at those reinforcement numbers!

[fracas]

Hi All, Bread has kindly allowed me to take a peek, and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on how this campaign is going and how we got here.

This is my second campaign that has reached summer 42, and definitely the more dire for me of the two, however as of turn 46 I just cracked the 6 million troops in the field mark and so I'm feeling good about turning this one around.

I lost fairly heavily in the south early in 1941 and decided to focus on the frankly terrific drive that bread was throwing towards Moscow (reinforced by parts of PG4 I believe) leaving a screen in the south, fortunately for me bread got to Rostov and decided that was enough for him, however he then dug into a very strong line that I failed to budge all winter, but in the centre the elephant in the room was the massive pocket that bread completed just before winter, I have had two campaigns previously where the axis had tried for a similar move but had failed, and so I was feeling confident that it would be my opponents mistake once again, and so I left the troops in the salient and then realised too late my folly.

Winter was a disappointment, the only decent chuck of land I retook was the centre pocket, as bread's panzers fled for warmer lodgings.

Bread is only 4 hexes from Moscow and poised to charge into the Caucasus or across the steppe to Stalingrad, this should be an interesting 42 and beyond.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: RedJohn

The pocket was closed many moons ago Loki, though it did take a very significant amount of time yeah.

Big pockets take forever to clear. That is why I keep my small and to the point of clearing the next turn. I use SS Divisions where I think a counterattack will come from. But yeah, that is one HUGE pocket

[YorStein]

How many Men is/was that ? 650-900k ?

[fracas]

I just quickly looked at the graphs - over the 3 turns that pocket was dissolved I lost 350k, alot of the units in the pocket were battered after fighting so most were definitely not full strength

[RedJohn]

We started our summer offensive around turn 49-50, pushing East from Tula and pocketting a number of brigades that were occupying forward positions.

We also pushed up from Rzhev to Kalinin with the 3rd PzG. I really don't know what I was thinking, and after the appearance of the 1st Guards Rifle Corps, packing a whopping 47 CV offensively, I abandoned the salient with the 3rd PzG and moved up 5 (somewhat battered) IDs to occupy defensive positions. They were encircled and wiped out.

Not a great start to the campaign season, truthfully.

[RedJohn]

The original pocket at Tula was broken in one place, and after plugging that up the turn after that we crushed it. I think it was turn 52 or 51. After resting, we broke through the soviet river line and seized the woods north of Tambov, as well as cutting the rail leading to it.

That was turn 52. In response, the Soviets broke through our rather thin holding lines at Voronezh with their tank corps, all the flipped hexes in Centre are the result.

This turn, in 53, I routed all of the tank corps that had broken through with a panzer from the 3rd PzG. I also relinked up the units past the river (which had been isolated thanks to annoying cavalry corps cutting 2 hexes) and then enveloped all soviet forces south of Ryazan, and completed another pocket of some units north of Lipetsk.

[RedJohn]

All in all I think there are 400k+ encircled.

[RedJohn]

He merged a lot of units at the front to form the corps, hence why there's so many.

[RedJohn]

Losses for the turn, very brutal AFV wise.

[RedJohn]

Elsewhere, Sevastapol fell.

[RedJohn]

And our breakthrough at the Peninsula is blunted with the arrival of reinforcements. The 11th will probably rest and refit, take over positions from the motorized corps, and begin a slow push outwards.

The motorized corps will be withdrawn to either the Centre, or push north-east of Kharkov.

[RedJohn]

OOBs.

[RedJohn]

T54 Start - oopsie. Apparently my pockets weren't a challenge, remotely, to break.