Blondi's Tail, a '41 GC. JB v HLYA Soviets

[jasonbroomer]

T1

After weeks of endless meetings with generals smelling foully of stale tobacco (its a brave man who smokes in the boss's presence - there's nothing like an ex-smoker to admonish those who retain the habit) the nod was finally given and Operation Barbarossa has gotten underway. I can't say with certainty that firm objectives have been determined for the campaign, other than deciding to destroy the enemy's vitality and willingness to fight. This sounds a bit woolly to me and an excuse of those in charge not to think about whether to strike for Moscow or not in '41.


What has been agreed upon is that this will be an early end, standard campaign. The usual house rules will apply with the exception of permitting naval invasions within 5 hexes of the front line. TBs are open.


The senior staff were jubilant as news of the early successes from the front began to arrive. Even the boss seemed delighted.

Typically, the odious Goring was first to get back to the boss to crow of 'his' success. I detest this guy: vain, leaching opiates from every pore and as useless as an upsided turtle. He spent over an hour lauding the success of 'his' plan, though I know for a fact that they credit should lay elsewhere as virtually all the work was done by the industrious, and improbably named, "Zovs"

Airwar.png (836.31 KiB) Viewed 3431 times

Zov's plan was tweaked somewhat, such as adjusting the bomb loads and giving the Odessa raids some extra punch. Goring's most salient contribution came from adding additional strikes on fields containing recon and transport planes (highlighted above). While over 4,000 bombers and fighters were destroyed, the soviets have thousands more. What they seem to be in shorter supply are decent recon and transport planes. Goring had been hoping for higher losses of these planes, but clearly hadn't done enough preparation before launching the attack. He certainly didn't let that on to the boss though, so typical of the man.

Two additional sorties were also scripted, a naval patrol in the Baltic and interdiction in the south

Interdiction.png (2.26 MiB) Viewed 3425 times

I don't know if this was effective, but it may slow the evasion of Soviet forces by a hex or two in this sector as they flee across rivers. I also considered laying additional interdiction in the circled area to slow any foot crossing those woods.

[jasonbroomer]

T1 AGN

The highly regarded general staff currently employed at the Soviet High Command developed a theory that it is best to work upwards from the south when making moves. I'm pleased to say that this approach has been adopted by the Axis in this game and already pronounced benefits have been detected as more favourable Soviet routing routes develop as a consequence.

However, I am a creature of habit, so this tale will be related from the north downwards.

T1 AGN EoT.png (3.88 MiB) Viewed 3396 times

Riga fell pomptly, these days it is not possible to deliberate attack it and hasties cannot be guaranteed to work. On this occasion the 3rd Motorised division was able to storm the city with the help of some assigned pioneers, though a panzer division was on standby in case the first attack failed. Riga is an important supply port so really needs to be taken on turn 1.

I was particularly delighted to hear praise given to 'Papa' Hoth's 3rd Panzer in reaching as far as Rezekne, 50 miles north of Daugaville in Latvia. I have a soft spot for 'Papa' who always finds a little time to give me some attention when he comes to visit the boss; his troops adore him as well. Anyway, today he is in the boss's good books by the extent of his advance. Note that the map shows the position at the end of the turn and the 18th Motorised infantry had been transferred to the pink colours of 4th Panzer. The Divina crossing were also taken control of to the east near Polotsk, which should ease things next turn.

Note also the limited number of routed Soviet units outside of the pockets. This has come about from working 'upwards', care and by only closing the pockets once the attacks on the frontal units have been completed.

There is some question about the effectiveness of advancing as far as possible on turn one. The advanced mobile units get next to nothing from supply trains anyway, so the boss takes the view that headway should be maximised as far possible. Against this theory is that panzers use 4x more fuel driving through newly captured terrain than they do from administrative movement. However, air supply should be delivered on-route, ideally before the panzers leave the normal range of the Ju 52s. Using drop tanks with the Ju52s extends their range, but these tanks take up valuable freight space. Panzers will accept additional fuel if they are adjacent to a captured airports and their existing fuel level is below around 85%. Again, there are other theories suggesting that transport planes are be better employed elsewhere but we are very dubious about these claims.


AGC

T1 AGC EoT pockets protected by distance ZOC and terrain.png (3.37 MiB) Viewed 3396 times

The boss seems very confident about the main pockets in the north and centre holding, thanks to a combination of distance, ZOC and/or terrain. Soviet mobility for the first few turns have been adjusted so it makes breaking pockets very difficult for them (more reason to go for a maximum advance). We made one error in his deployment, leaving a gap in our lines highlighted in red. The soviets can't break the pocket from here but an armoured division might be able to reach the important dual rail line to the south east. To ameliorate this error, we cut the northern pocket in two, to prohibit the unaccounted for Soviet tank division from receiving any supply from the depot which is now in the western segment of the pocket.

The supply depots of the main Bialystok pocket have been captured, though in general the front line troops have not been attacked. Instead, we infiltrate through them.

A number of Soviet divisions have been routed NE of Minsk. It might be possible to refine the opening so that these end up in a pocket.

[jasonbroomer]

T1 AGS

Technically, this sector is the hardest to play but our valiant opponent graciously recently provided a guide on how to crack it. This was shamelessly used by the boss. There are no longer reserve activations from hasties which greatly eases any variance. Instead of fully replicating HLYA's guide, we varied it by focused on creating a smaller Brody pocket but added a Proskurov thrust.

This is a complex operation but things thankfully went smoothly until trouble was encountered near Rovno. The Soviet 215th Mech Div sitting in swamp must be removed and 14th Pz had an unpleasant surprise

T1 AGS Rovono pocket gulp.png (2 MiB) Viewed 3384 times

A defensive 8CV is not what we wanted to see here, but the boss was furious about von Mackensen's caution and the order was given for him to attack again. This time the division was reinforced by some Stugs and pioneers but nevertheless it carryied less attacking power than the first time. This is offence on a wing and pray

T1 AGS Rovono pocket pheew.png (2.05 MiB) Viewed 3384 times

Thankfully the first attack destroyed virtually all the 215th's armour and the boss was jubilant that this second attack was a success. The 2nd RFSS sitting in reserve was not called upon for a third attack. After this sweaty moment, things proceeded pretty much as expected.

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This Brody pocket may not hold but the Soviets will have to commit divisions from outside to break it and it will only delay the inevitable. The power of Proskurov thrust has been improved by the new positioning of a locked Romanian division to the south.

Positioning a regiment south of Proskurov now prevents the Soviets from railing any units away from the south, thus

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It is quite possible for our units to be isolated around Proskurov but the boss seems to think that that matters little and that an additional 5-6 soviet divisions can be pocketed next turn.

All in all, this seems to be a pretty powerful opening.

[Jango32]

brody_broken.png (2.26 MiB) Viewed 3346 times

Only 7th Mechanised is needed from outside to break the Brody pocket, sadly.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

brody_broken.png

Only 7th Mechanised is needed from outside to break the Brody pocket, sadly.

Correct. 45 Tank had 16mps & 7th Mech had 25. It can be broken, but 45th Tank can't make that second hop. You would have to use 7th Mech to the east of the orange arrow to break it. If I did or not will have to wait and see.


I want to take a minute and Thank Jasonbroomer for the game. He invited me to post and he is free to post in my AAR when I start. So "Thank you" Jasonbroomer and wish you luck but does not look like you will need it from my side of the aisle

Thank you and have a nice day!

[Hardradi]

Positioning a regiment south of Proskurov now prevents the Soviets from railing any units away from the south,

I really like this move. I see you have supplemented it with some air interdiction at the southern end as well, making it a bit more difficult for some of those units to get away.

[AlbertN]

Looking forward to keep this AAR in check - wishing good luck to JB, for HLYA is a very competent player!

[jasonbroomer]

T2 Axis

The boss has relocated us

T2 Wolf's Lair.png (624.29 KiB) Viewed 3063 times

to a horrid new location. Fetid, full of mosquitoes and in the middle of nowhere. Mine fields and barbwire restrict where you can roam, not even a sniff of a bitch in the air but at least the concrete blast walls dampen the ceaseless clatter of the typing pool. I hope we aren't going to be here long but sadly the enemy is already showing signs that it will not quickly roll over.

The boss was furious with the Luftwaffe for failing to stop massive Soviet interdiction runs. Firstly in the south, the Romanian infantry division on the key border location preventing Soviet rail movement, got hit by wave after wave of Soviet bombers. These sufficiently weakened the unit so that it routed when attacked

T2 Sov wise opening.png (2.72 MiB) Viewed 3063 times

Thereby allowing several soviet divisions to escape by rail from the imminent closing of the Lvov pocket.

Secondly, advanced panzer formations in the north got swarmed by bombers as well

T2 Sov interdiction.png (3.56 MiB) Viewed 3063 times

While we can bypass the worst effects of the massive(detailed in blue), it does have an impact on our movement

T2 AGC Massive Soviet interdiction really slows us down, however tempting those Sovs on rails are.png (986.21 KiB) Viewed 3063 times

Goring was summoned for an immediate conference to explain this lapse but typically he sent Kesselring in his place. So poor old Kesselring copped a full dose of the boss's spline nearly a full on twenty minutes session of the hair dryer treatment. I won't recount exactly what was 'conferred' but it was something along the lines of you have been caught with your trousers down and you better pull up your socks.

[jasonbroomer]

T2 Overview

The good news is that all our pockets held. The pocketed Soviet divisions valiantly attempted numerous futile counterattacks. These did nothing but provide our troops with some excellent training with the exception of a mauling of security unit.

T2 Sov lots of counter attacks, only successful here, pockets held.png (3 MiB) Viewed 3042 times

There appears to have been an attempted to rescue units trapped in the Rovno pocket, but the incursion by the Soviet armoured division (highlighted in red) was stymied by our forces


Frustratingly, the attempt to get the rail line repair conversion ahead of schedule failed as our RAD units failed to deploy fully. The V corp (located in the blue circle) was assigned 3 RAD units but none of these deployed. We did have some FBD units in the region (location highlighted in red) and RAD's won't deploy close to FBDs (we assumed this meant 20 miles), however, there were plenty of locations where the RADs could have been deployed (orange stars), that were 30 or even 40 miles away from a FBD.

T2 Sov RAD fail to place.png (3.11 MiB) Viewed 3046 times

Thankfully, two crucial RADs were deployed in the right hand side of the picture, these came from a different HQ

AGN


The Baltics appear to have been abandoned according to Lwf recon. Despite being little hesitant to trust this unreliable organisation, OKH decides to gun it and rush the 20th Motorised as far it it will go. It receives vital supplies on route from transport planes. A panzer division is diverted to supported this push, otherwise the unit would have been too vulnerable.

T2 AGN Baltics abandoned, ty. Note refueling on the way.png (3.27 MiB) Viewed 3046 times

[jasonbroomer]

T2 AGN continued

Progress for the main push towards Pskov was more subdued

T2 AGN This upfront defence is vexing and makes progress difficult.png (2.49 MiB) Viewed 3039 times

Evidently, defenders from the Baltic had been deployed here. This makes much strong progress difficult, so we elect to pocket the blocking troops after brushing aside some of the weaker units

T2 AGN EoT, decided to encirlce blockers.png (1.28 MiB) Viewed 3039 times

[jasonbroomer]

T2 AGC

Again, there was much enemy activity in and around the land bridge. Weak units were bushed aside again save a resilient Soviet division, some 10,000 men strong, which was determined to be worthwhile pocketing.

T2 AGC 10k in the division so pocketed.png (1.9 MiB) Viewed 3036 times

It was really tempting to push directly east toward Smolensk, as there appears to be many Soviet units, many of which would doubtless be very vulnerable entrained troops. However, it was decided that we should capture the difficult terrain to the north of these which had been deserted.

T2 AGC EoT.png (2.64 MiB) Viewed 3036 times

To the south of BL, we engage in a bit of nefarious Nazis game play as a Soviet general is killed in the Bialystok pocket. Maslennikov is assigned to the 10th army and the HQ displaced to the Pripyat marshes.

T2 AGS evil leader trap.png (713.79 KiB) Viewed 3031 times

Here the HQ is promptly re pocketed, which should give us a decent chance of dispatching one of the finest Soviet leaders next turn.

[jasonbroomer]

T2 AGS

Sadly, despite giving the Romanians supply priority 4 last turn,we end up with a miserable amount of MPs in the south

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This completely screws up our plans for the Soviet southern front and our problems were exacerbated by some unexpected Soviet cavalry reinforcements to the sector.

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The poor advance by the Romanians did nothing to improve the boss's disposition though fortunately 1st Panzer made good progress against limited opposition which allowed it to come to the rescue

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While some soviet formations were only ZOC locked rather than pocketed in this manoeuvre, the weak Rom cavalry brigade in the crucial place was reinforced by the 2nd RFSS, which had been held back in reserve till now.

T2 AGS RFSS gets placed here.png (406.26 KiB) Viewed 3023 times

[jasonbroomer]

T2 Supply

Just before closing off, I thought I should add a little about supply. We set our depot levels high along the east on turn one. This draws hundreds of thousands of tonnes from our NS. I can see no advantage in using air transport to draw an additional thousand tonnes or so from Berlin.

We also build new depots on BL (AGC) and Przemyst East. These depots will each draw c. 7,000 tonnes eastwards for consumption by the front line troops. This allows units such as Henirici's XXXXIII corps (assigned 5 good divisions and attached to 2nd Panzer) to linger around Bl on turn one on supply priority 4. Henirici's significant general ratings coupled with the good supply should provide 5 divisions with 16 MPs each to catapult them up towards Minsk.

In this game, I set the bulk of my forces to supply priority 2 (there are a couple exceptions). Compared to my game versus Vet, where the Panzer groups remained on supply priority 3, I actually received more supply to the troops by being more selective. A major difference is that I reduced 'supply lost' by over 60%. I also lost under 1,000 trucks over the turn. Setting units on the extremity of your t1 advance on a high supply priority will gain them merely a few extra tonnes of supply, as much of the delivery will be lost.

By the end of turn 2, with only a few bits of pockets to be tidied up, losses were

T2 Losses.png (332.95 KiB) Viewed 3015 times

The bulk of the Axis losses were Rom's from the Soviet preemptive attack in the south

[jasonbroomer]

T3 Axis

Well I thought this activity a little rude of the Soviets in the Land Bridge

T3 SoT A bit rude.png (764.49 KiB) Viewed 2847 times

It's no great inconvenience as these extended troops were not going to get much supply anyway. I can counter pocket the raiders and not move the affected units to max out CPP gains.

HYLA also made a similar nuisance raid in the south, where frankly I was expecting it

T3 SoT Fair enough.png (1.11 MiB) Viewed 2847 times

I used to be terrified of allowing my advanced motorised units to be cut off like this but I now take the view that if it's not happening, then I'm not pushing hard enough. Instead, now I am becoming more measured in the troops that I push forward. This allows CPP & supply build for units that moved little/not at all. One thing that I have noticed in this game is how resource hungry capturing land is. It takes 4 units of fuel to flip a hex in contrast to a single unit to move administratively. These fresh units will be more than capable of dealing with any raiders.

Curiously, the Baltics appear to remain undefended

T3 SoT Do the Baltics remain undefended.png (1.81 MiB) Viewed 2847 times

I shall air recon it to confirm.

[jasonbroomer]

T3 AGN

Indeed, the boss was delighted to read the air recon reports that indeed the Baltics appear empty of defenders. So plans are adapted and the existing single panzer and motorised division in the area are ordered to press on with all possible haste.

T3 AGN Abandoned, even Tallinin.png (1.32 MiB) Viewed 2840 times

Even Tallinn was abandoned, which was seized with alacrity. We had some excellent MPs with our mobile units thanks to our air resupply strategy and good progress was to made towards the Narva

T3 AGN Enemy found, perhaps I can hit them with infantry DA next turn.png (1.17 MiB) Viewed 2840 times

Here the enemy was located in the swamps and a motorised regiment had just enough legs to dive into the swamp adjacent to them. A quick calculation indicates that if we can bring up an infantry unit to the limit of last turn's advance and get at least 14 MPs next turn, we will be able to hasty attack the Soviet divisions in the swamps, sparing our tired motorised units the job. Just to be sure, we move up 2 infantry units (as shown on the map) in the hope that at least one of them has sufficient MPs.

The boss has been very cagey about our supply management so far in this game. The number of infantry units following the motorised spearheads has been limited to what is required. Air drops are being used diligently. RADs have been given limited placement options to ensure that only useful rails are repaired. Firstly, we are being very conscious of the hexes that we flip and are striving to not unnecessarily flip rail hexes that won't serve any purpose. Great care has been made in dealing with AGN's 1st turn pocket. Collapsing the pocket has been postponed to temporarily limit the number of broken rails. In our rush through the Baltics, our progress has been limited to only flip rail hexes on the Riga-Sonda line. We have purposely avoided the temptation to deviated elsewhere such as flipping hexes in the eastern part of the Baltics. This 'thin' advance of course leaves our supply lines open to raids, so the boss is being careful to guard these with regiments. Secondly, we are employing dark Nazi practices to further limit the options for RAD placement. RADs will not place if the hex already has 3 units on it. Thus for an example, we can block off a potential rail hex conversion with a infantry division temporarily broken down into regiments. Additionally, otherwise otiose units can also be utilised in such diabolic practices. Sadly, not all RADS have placed as we might, but good progress is being made with our supply lines.

Later on, when the boss's back is turned, I shall divulge further supply stratagems.

Of course the Soviets have transferred the Baltic defenders to the road to Pskov. This means that progress here has been slow and trash units have to be swept aside

T3 AGN EOT .png (1.99 MiB) Viewed 2840 times

We are concerned about possible interdiction in the Narva area in an attempt to foil our attempt at a river crossing next turn. We anticipated reaching the river this turn, so have set up AS over the sector. We have also jammed, literally, an entire AA army into the XXXXI HQ and as many AA SUs as we can on the motorised units on the banks. We probably can't stop an interdiction mission but we shall make it very costly.

[jasonbroomer]

T3 AGC

Air recon reveals what can only be described as a wall of crap

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Anyway an elaborate plan is drawn up to pocket as many as we can

T3 AGCpossible plan.png (1.58 MiB) Viewed 2838 times

Progress is mixed, as the Soviets don't always retreat where we wish

T3 AGC not what we wanted but .png (1.65 MiB) Viewed 2838 times

or just run away

T3 AGC too heavy.png (1.88 MiB) Viewed 2838 times

[jasonbroomer]

T3 AGC Cont

By the end of all this, we end up with a paltry pocket

T3 AGConly small pocket .png (1.97 MiB) Viewed 2835 times

The boss was not happy with this result and his face had turned to a delightful shade of beetroot by the end of his rant.


AGS


Progress here was deliberately measured in an attempt to conserve supply

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The Romanian sector was tidied up a little following the horlicks of a turn last week

T3 AGS Rom sector still messy.png (1.97 MiB) Viewed 2835 times

[jasonbroomer]

T3 Loss update

As the main pockets are now dealt with, the losses number is more meaningful

T3 EoT losses.png (484.27 KiB) Viewed 2833 times

As over 10k of our losses are Roms, we so far have suffered few causalities.

The air situation is less favourable (once t1 is excluded), with the Soviets running a bundle of AS missions

T3 EoT losses, air, HLYA is running a lot of superiority.png (736.74 KiB) Viewed 2833 times

[jasonbroomer]

T4

Goebbels has been summoned to the lair. The boss obviously didn't twig but I smelt scent on him that clearly wasn't Magda's. I guess that he is up to his old tricks again and do hope that she doesn't end up getting hurt. I have a deep affection for her and I have greatly enjoyed playing with their 5 children. I digress; Goebbels was set the task with presenting the interesting developments in the air war to the German people. Thousands (literally) of sorties are being flown and we have never encountered enemy activity like this. These are mainly air superiority missions with the occasional concentrated interdiction target. The Luftwaffe boys are a bit bemused on what how to respond, but they have started to run AS of their own and the boss has ordered that units spearheading the advance be provided with additional AA SUs if air cover is lacking.

T4 SoT interesting stuff going on in air war.png (523.37 KiB) Viewed 2680 times

The above details just the activity in the Soviet phase. While the loss ratios are acceptable, keeping advanced fighter squadrons fully supplied is proving irksome and cover for forward units is difficult.

We also had a stroke of luck with our rail repairs in the Baltics

T4 SoT interesting, mixed for rail repair.png (2.23 MiB) Viewed 2680 times

As I mentioned last week, the advance through the Baltics is being kept to a narrow frontage between Riga and Sonda, to ensure that RADs only repair useful rails. Somehow, the Axis have been awarded a great tract of land at the start of this turn (circled in blue) - this, despite the fact that it was not cut off (Parnu was in Soviet hands until this happened) and no Axis divisions were within 2 hexes. Evidently, the Latvian peoples have taken the opportunity to throw off their communist's yokes and join us. This potentially could have been disastrous for our rail repair programme, but fortunately all but one of the RADs were deployed in areas that we wished.

The line from Riga northwards is not yet complete, but we now have an operational line working from the port of Parnu to close to the front, so all is good. The boss is delighted.

He was less pleased with the Soviets encircling elements of AGC's advanced panzer formations

T4 SoT interesting pocket.png (1.77 MiB) Viewed 2680 times

but he is coming around to the idea that this is a cost of doing business and those Soviet units involved will be shown no mercy. Note the lofty CVs of the advancing infantry divisions, CPPs are being carefully managed. Note also that the motorised division cut off in VL still has 31 MPs. This unit received air supply during in its move last week.

[jasonbroomer]

T4 AGN

Last turn's preparations have paid off and one of the two infantry divisions has enough MPs to hasty the Soviets in the swamps on the approaches to the River Narva

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The swamps were duly cleared as were the western banks of the Narva.

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We are possibly set to get across the Narva by turn 5. The downside is that our advance on Pskov is encountering lots of opposition from admittedly weak units but nevertheless slow us down. These tend to implode when facing our panzers though

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Progress is may be behind schedule here but reaching the Narva more than makes up for it, especially as the supply situation is looking better in that sector. Additional divisions are being directed to this region to reinforce our success.

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