Steel Inferno: AG A – Part I: Race for the Caucasus (Solo AAR)

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This solo AAR is from the Steel Inferno DLC scenario pack. I will be playing as the Axis against the Soviet AI on Challenging in the scenario AG A - Part I: Race to the Caucasus which is a 17 turn scenario.

Opening scenario information:

Part 1:


Part 2:

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Initial view of the map at the start of the Air Phase:

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Victory Points screen:

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First few turns reinforcements:

Ground


Air

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Events for turn 1:

Operation Bluecher


Order No. 227


German Situation Report 1


German Situation Report 2

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Main map area and vital Victory Point locations:

Max zoomed out


Zoomed out

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Air Phase

Now the fun part, I planned on deleting all the default Air Directives but changed my mind for turn 1. However, I do want to reset all the default German Air Doctrines first. Based on various factors of previously playing WITE2 and my experience with WITW, I have decided to start with these as my base Air Doctrines:

New Air Doctrine Settings:


The default Air Directives are fine, but I tweaked the recon AD (only want to recon on D1 and set the min/req to 4(2)) and added four new GA missions for interdiction:

The new Air Directives:


The tweaked recon directives:


This is what those default ADs look like:

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Air Execution Phase Summary:


I lost a total of 31 aircraft with 57 damaged, this is because I was a bit more aggressive with the GA (using the default AD with no changes should yield between 8-12 aircraft lost).

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1st GA mission:


2nd GA mission:


3rd GA mission:


4th GA mission:


Not great interdiction, but I'll show that later.

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Ground Losses from the Air Phase:


Air Losses from the Air Phase:

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Ground Phase

Recon and Interdiction:

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At start positions:


Closer look:
https://i.imgur.com/JcFpJRU.jpg

General Notes about at start Forces.

The command structure is as follows:

OKH
Army Group A

1st Panzer Army (Kleist), Grossdeutschland Motorized Division
III Panzer Corps (Mackensen), 14th Panzer Division.
XXXX Panzer Corps (Schweppenburg), 23rd and 3rd Panzer Divisions, and 16th Motorized Division.
LVII Panzer Corps (Kirchner), 13th Panzer Division, Wiking SS Motorized Division, and 1st Slovakian Mobile Division.
XXXXIV Corps (de Angelis), 97th and 101st Jaeger Divisions.

17th Army (Ruoff), 298th Infantry Division.
V Corps (Wetzel), 125th and 198th infantry Division.
XXXXIX Mountain Corps (Konrad), 1st and 4th Mountain Divisions, 2nd Rum. Mountainy Division, and the 73rd Infantry Division.
LII Corps (Ott), 111th and 370th Infantry Divisions.

3rd Rum. Army (Dumitrescu)
Cav RM Corps (Racovita), 5th, 6th and 9th Rum. Cav. Divisions.

In the Crimea is the XXXXII Bef. Krim Corps and the Mountain Rum. Corps (both of which are frozen).

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General Plan of Attack:


Closer look:
https://i.imgur.com/k3pF1a1.jpg

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Details of attack. Most of the Soviet units in the front lines are in a terrible state and if you can get behind the initial line of defense and or encircle most of these units they will crack like dry brittle paper and disintegrate.

Likewise the at start German units CPP is all at 0, however there are some still very powerful units and now is the time to strike.

Most of the Germans units have very high morale and experience. Supplies are excellent. Fuel, Ammo, and CP however is not so great.

Fuel:


Ammo:


CPP:

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You have 2 turns to capture Salask, Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, and Sukhumi.

I have not been able to get the coastal VP cities by turn 2 (Sukhumi and Novorossiysk), Salask and Krasnodar are possible.

Lets try to shoot for that.

So this is my end of turn 1 moves. I bit risky, but lets see what the AI can do.


Closer look:
https://i.imgur.com/kM5DkAz.jpg

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Did not see much Soviet activity on turn 1, just a few air resupply missions.

This is the start of the air phase and turn summary.


Closer look:
https://i.imgur.com/kyNL9gX.png

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Turn 2 events:

Krasnodar Militia


Edelweiss


Bait & Switch


Partisans

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Air Phase setup

These are the Air Directives I setup for this turn:


This is the coverage:

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This is the execution:


Interdiction results:


Air losses:

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Arrivals:


Freight: