Scenario: The Destruction of Southwestern Front vs Sov AI (Completed)

[jlbhung]

This is an AAR on "The Destruction of Southwestern Front" Scenario. I play as Axis against Soviet AI at difficulty 110, and with Fog of War ON.
(Game ver from 1.02.13 to 1.02.15)

The Overall Plan

I have a rough overall plan, as illustrated in the attached pic -
(a) in the north, the 6th Army will proceed towards Rovno first, then Kiev, and finally Kharkov;
(b) in the centre, the Panzer Group 1 (1PzG) will proceed along the dual track rail from Lvov, towards Vinnitsa, Kirovograd, Dnepropetrovsk, Stalino and finally Rostov. The fast-moving motorized units can branch either north or south to form pockets where opportunities arise; and
(c) in the South, the 11th Army will be responsible for Odessa and then the Sevastopol fortress.

In view of the name of the scenario, I plan to form pockets whenever I see the chance, aiming to destroy as many Soviet units as possible. On the down side, reducing pockets takes time and may possibly slow down the advance towards Rostov.

I will adopt an approach of using panzer/armored units mainly in maneuvering, avoiding direct combat. I think this could preserve the number of tanks, and in turn the strength of these units. If attack by panzer units is really needed, I will try to confine the attack on small and weak enemies (eg. security regiments, airborne brigades). I plan to report at end of each Turn of this AAR how good I can adhere to this approach.

[jlbhung]

Turn 1 Air Phase

My T1 Air Phase was all about bombing airfields to destroy as many Soviet aircrafts as possible, while minimizing Axis aircraft losses. In this scenario, every 3 Axis/10 Soviet aircraft losses mean 1 victory point (VP) for the other side. For a minor victory (1.1x Soviet VP), the loss of 3 Axis aircraft (1 VP) has to be balanced by 11 Soviet aircraft destroyed; for a major victory (2x Soviet VP), it has to be balanced by at least 2 VP gain (= 20 Soviet aircraft destroyed). To prevent bombers from annihilated by Soviet fighters, I prefer all airfield bombing missions to be fully escorted.

To extend fighters’ escort coverage, Drop Tanks were equipped where available. Some fighter air groups, in particular JG77 and Rumanian planes, were also rebased forward.

More and smaller bombs were selected as the Load Out for bombers, hoping that more enemy aircrafts could be destroyed in one bombing mission. Screenshot below shows examples of aircraft Load Out.

[jlbhung]

Turn 1 Air Phase (cont.)

A total of 28 airfields were targeted for bombing. An Air Directive was set for each airfield targeted. This allows the selection of different staging air bases for each bombing mission, so that more airfields could be attacked within the limited range of fighter escorts. Screenshot shows a typical Air Directive for the attack on airfield at (188,174). Some parts highlighted –

(a) Schedule: attack on Day 1 (note: special advantage for attack on 22 Jun 41, see Manual Ch 11);
(b) Strike num: I leave it to auto. While the bracketed number suggested that AI plans to attack twice, I think the AI will auto-adjust in the execution. As shown the red square in Part B of the screenshot, only one raid was actually conducted for this mission;
(c) Min AC(Esc): I arbitrarily set a minimum of 10 bombers and 10 escorts (the number in bracket) for each mission. AI will abort the mission if min aircrafts cannot be met. This will prevent unescorted bombing mission;
(d) Req AC(Esc): I leave it to auto. I have no better knowledge than the AI in setting this number. Actual aircrafts flown in this mission were 48 bombers and 44 escorts (see light green circle in Part B of the screenshot);
(e) Partial escort: I set it to NO. Escorts must cover the whole range of the mission.

[jlbhung]

Turn 1 Air Phase Result

The result of the airfield bombings – 1,723 kills vs 43 Axis losses

[jlbhung]

Turn 1 Action Phase

Referring to the screenshot -

1. In the north (blue circle), a small pocket containing 7 Soviet units was formed with the assistance of a panzer division, broken down to regiments.

2. In the centre (black arrow), the progress of 1PzG is not very good. Tarnopol was still in Soviet hands. This may be due to the diversion of one panzer div north and other panzer div south to form pockets. I saw in some other AARs 1PzG could reach even Proskurov.

3. The dual track rail leading to Lvov and beyond was cleared (the red line) so that early repair could be carried out. This will facilitate supply to support future advance of 1PzG. Elements of the 17A also isolated 4 Soviet units in the Lvov area.

4. In the south (the green circle), a small pocket containing 4 Soviet units was formed with the help of another panzer division, broken down to regiments.

Units further south were frozen and not shown in the screenshot.

I adhere to my adopted approach of not using Panzer divisions/regiments to make attack this turn.

[G Felzien]

Thank you for making this AAR. I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

[loki100]

agree, really useful and a nice resource for new players

[jlbhung]

Thank you GFelz and loki100 for your interest in this AAR. My tentative plan is to update a turn every 2-3 days.

[jlbhung]

Turn 2 - Air Phase

I started air recon missions this turn. Screenshot shows a typical Air Directive setting (see red box). Some highlights –

(a) Schedule: flying 2 days (fewer days – fewer operational losses, lower recon effectiveness);
(b) Altitude: 22000ft (higher – fewer flak losses, lower recon effectiveness);
(c) Min/Req AC(Esc): set aircrafts required for a mission to 4 for German, or 6 for Axis minor with less experience (fewer aircrafts – fewer operational/flak losses, lower recon eff);
(d) Since only recon aircrafts are assigned (see blue box), settings regarding escorts are mostly irrelevant, as long as the min escort number is set to 0 (otherwise no recon mission flown).

This setting is a compromise developed in playing earlier versions where flak and operational losses were high. It gives reasonable recon with acceptable losses.

The recon missions do not have escorts. I think the small number of mission aircrafts helps to avoid enemy air interception.

[jlbhung]

Turn 2 - Recon Results

A total of 13 Recon Air Directives were conducted with 12 aircrafts lost (8 flak and 4 operational). Not too bad with the introduction of v.1.02.13, for previously versions I would expect some 20-40 losses for similar recon activities.

Screenshot shows enemy units before (top) and after recon (bottom) for some of the Recon missions for easy comparison. The result seems acceptable as many enemy units were detected. Also of interest is what this screenshot reveals – behind the frontline the route from Tarnopol through Proskurov to Vinnitsa is lightly defended only with forts (I guess they are the weak battalion size type).

[jlbhung]

Turn 2 - Action Phase (Part 1)

Isolated pockets formed last turn were cleared, destroying 10 Soviet divisions (smaller units not counted). Over 94k Soviet soldiers captured/killed at a minimal cost of just 650 men (see screenshot).

[jlbhung]

Turn 2 - Action Phase (Part 2)

Referring to the screenshot –

1. The dual track rail from Lvov to Vinnitsa was occupied (blue arrow). Vinnitsa was the first Victory Point city taken.

2. A pocket with the city Stanislav at the centre formed with the assistance of units located in Rumania (black arrow). Elements of the German 11A first broke a hole in the Soviet frontline, and two Rumanian cavalry brigades also took part in the exploration afterwards.

3. Another pocket formed with contributions from units in Rumania (red arrow). Let’s call it the “Podolia pocket”. A hole was torn open mainly by the German 11A, and then explored by mobile Rumanian units (an armored division, later broken into 3 regiments, plus 2 cavalry brigades).

4. Several enemy units not identified in recon were encountered by troops on ground (units circled in green). Maybe the recon setting needs refinement.

[jlbhung]

Turn 2 - Action Phase (Part 3)

Screenshot shows the overall end of turn position. There was not much progress in the southern part of the Rumanian Border.

In this turn, a German panzer regiment and a Rumanian armored regiment attacked fort battalions in order to close a pocket. Other than these two attacks on very weak units, there were no attack involving armored units.

[Stamb]

I think that it might be useful to use interdiction at maximum while also setting unit on lvl 2 or 3 in a recon mission. Probably you don't care about railways/railyards and etc. At least I do so.
Other than that - GL and thanks for AAR!

[jlbhung]

Thank you Stamb, in particular for your suggestions on unit recon.

As to the part regarding railway/railyards, I'm not too sure if you are referring to recon or my rail depots.

On the former, I think recon on rail/railyard is probably more useful for the Soviet side in 41', to facilitate bombing of Axis rail/railyards to hinder their supply and advance.

On the latter, I will share my rail repair plan and rail depot locations in the AAR for the next turn.

[Stamb]

I am talking about air recon settings, like here:



You use highest priority for INTERDICT, while leaving all other settings at 0.
I think it might be useful to use INTERDICT at maximum, while setting UNIT for 2 or 3.

[jlbhung]

Thank you Stamb for the elaboration. I got it now.

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 - Air Phase

Screenshot shows the 4 recon Air Directives planned this turn. The missions are launched to specifically support the following two ground initiatives -

1. to keep up momentum, 1PzG plans to advance northeast towards Kiev along the dual track rail; and

2. to take Zhitomir this turn. If Zhitomir falls, next turn motorized units could move north quickly along the road path towards the map’s northern edge, isolating any soviets units locating to the west.

No other recon was planned because the remaining ground efforts will be focused in reducing the Stanislav and Podolia pockets.

For a typical recon Air Directive, I increased the required aircrafts to gain better recon (from 4 to 6 for German aircrafts, from 6 to 8 for Axis minors - see an example in the red box at the top-left corner).

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 - Recon Results

Screenshot shows the recon results. A plan was formulated based on the intelligence gathered (see red arrows).

Five aircrafts were lost in the 4 recon missions. I made a mistake in not manually assign air groups for one of the Air Directives. As a result the AI flew escorts and one fighter was lost (see the green boxes in the screenshot). In my view, flying escorts for small recon missions is not cost-effective. In the long run it is possible to lose more escorts than recon planes saved from potential enemy interception.

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 - Action Phase (Part 1)

Screenshot shows the northern part of the map –

1. The 6th Army (6A) advanced without meeting any resistance. Rovno was occupied uncontested. Is the Soviet AI retreating from this sector?

2. Execution of the plan formulated based on recon results (see my last post) was perfect. Only four battles fought. No undetected enemy units popped up in the area southwest of Kiev.