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My plan for this AAR is not to finish this game, but rather to learn this game in detail and possibly learn some history of the Eastern Front. I would probably abandon it and start a new one once OOB 2.0 comes out. Moreover, I'm not a native English speaker so the way I choose words/make phrases might be inappropriate or simply wrong. Sorry in advance if that happens. This campaign is running at challenging difficulty with movement FoW. Any discussion, suggestion, and comment is very welcome.

Anyway, here's my plan for 41's offensive operation.

For AGN, I'll use the 4th PzGrp to capture Riga, Pskov, and possibly Leningrad with the help of the 3rd PzGrp. As for 3rd PzGrp, you can see on the map that it will perform encirclement around the Bialystok-Minsk region as what happened historically I believe.



For AGC, my plan is to take Minsk and Smolensk ASAP with the help of 2nd and 3rd PzGrp. After that, the 2nd PzGrp will move south heading toward Orel direction, taking major cities along Orel-Stalino rail line. This is gonna be an ambitious plan.



For AGS, my plan is rather straightforward. Taking Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Stalino and Rostov ASAP. The major question is whether supply would keep up due to the lack of potential railyard and whether I can break through the Soviet's defense line while having a shortage of supplies.



Other than that, there's more change before air phase. I have to confess that I'm unfortunately a min-maxer and control freak, so I decided to send all of my SU back to OKH, and manually canceled all of the scheduled transfers for my ground/air units. (I guess developers will not be happy about it LOL)







(Sent the majority of Hungary airforce, all of Slovakia airforce, and some Romanian airforce to reserve since I don't think I will use them on map in the near future.)

Make a checklist to replace those incompetent generals. This is based on morale value and the name list could be changed, and will be extended in the future. Also, any thoughts on what things would I need to put in the checklist in the future? Right now I can only think of recording the number of repaired trucks and general supply/demand situation.

T01 Action phase - Air

My plan for eliminating Soviet's airforce is as follows.



I need to make sure that for every bombing mission, there will be an escort followed. Welp, I guess this is going to be a very busy day for those fighter pilots. I also follow some rules below when planning the missions.
• If the airfield is packed with fighters, it will be a very-high priority mission.
• If the airfield is packed with bombers or others like recon, it will depend on the distance between the staging base and the airfield.
• If the number of planes in that airfield is less than 40, then only do one strike. If between 40 and 80, two strikes. 80 to 120, three strikes, etc.



Here's the result. I'm quite surprised that it works so well. I would expect 200+ of losses from this.



T01 Action phase - Ground

For north, I temporarily motorized one of the infantry on the left side and used that division to capture both of their port. Meanwhile, the 4th PzGrp heading toward Riga, crossed that major river(Northern Dvina River according to Google) and successfully captured it. The 3rd PzGrp split in two, one planning to cross the river at Polotsk and then move east, and the other is tasked with taking Minsk, and then heading toward Smolensk directly.

The imaginary line means planning on the next turn.



Probably unnecessary to use three tank division but just to be sure since it's a city hex.



For central, 2nd PzGrp also joined the fight of taking Minsk, managed to encircle massive amount of Soviet troops as intended. The problem is the chance of Soviets breaking through encirclement is quite high since there's no troop guarding. Could be a mistake.



For south, the infantry division managed to break through Soviet defense along the rail line and take Lvov. The one AAR I saw previously did not bother reaching the activation point, so I just ignored it and moved forward. Also, could be a mistake.

Trying moving freight out of NSS by air transport. This is HLYA's idea from this post(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 6&t=389808). Just an experiment.

T02 Sitrep
Soviets didn't do much about our advancing, which is not surprising since rapid advancement has pretty much destroyed the Soviet's chain of command.
From the north and central sides, Soviets didn't even try to break the pocket. This is a great news for us.


From the south side, it seems some soviet troops are moving out of the Lvov pocket. This turn I'll try to cut off their retreat line and link up with Romanian troops.


Interestingly enough, the 11th Pz Div has already down to 58% of ToE. Worth noticing in the future.


75th ID is also falling to 62% of ToE. I'll put it to rest this turn.


It seems that the Soviet airforce is trying to slow Panzers down by inflicting damage on railyards. They bombed the cities of Riga, Voronovo, and Minsk while suffering heavy losses from the Luftwaffe interception.

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T02 Air phase:
Unfortunately, our panzers are advancing so fast that our recon planes have to relocate in order to perform recon missions for them.



There's little I can do in the air phase except for recon. Guess that would be it.

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T02 Air result:
72 recon lost with 34 pilots getting killed. But the recon result was worth the casualties, especially south over the Lvov pocket.



Unable to scout much over the Smolensk region due to fuel issues.


Very valuable information over Pskov. Maybe I can make a breakthrough over the circled area?

Hi

Am I correct you going to have 4th Armee as a blocking force in the Moscow sector ? will you have enough troops while your Pz Armee's are North and South.

tm1 wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2023 9:36 am Hi

Am I correct you going to have 4th Armee as a blocking force in the Moscow sector ? will you have enough troops while your Pz Armee's are North and South.

That blue defense line simply represents the general defensive position I am planning to take. It does not represent I will defend it with 4th Army only. I'm planning to use 4th Pz Grp to help defend this region in winter if possible.

T02 - Ground phase - AGS/Antonescu

Start with south. My plan is to close the Lvov pocket.


Since III Mot Crps are the most front unit, I'm gonna assign them with 3 arty battalions and 4 Werfer battalions so they can have better equipment against soft targets. Not expecting Soviet airforce to join the fight at the 2nd turn so only two Mixed Flak battalions.


This Soviet Tank unit seems very powerful.


Well... Even though our CV outnumbered them, casualties are the problem. Lost 23 APC in one fight is not good for future advancement. KV-1 and T-34 are the real threats, just like what happened historically.


To prevent further AFV losses, I assigned a panzerjaeger battalion directly to my Panzer Division, and it worked well.




III Mot Crps met with heavy resistance from Soviets when advancing to Derazhnya junction, most of its units were above 80 fatigue and thus not combat effective anymore. Fuel is also running low.


For Romanian troops, I make AG Antonescu directly under OKH's command. I bet this is not historically accurate at this time.


I put two Panzerjeager battalions in my infantry division that would engage Soviet tanks and only realized afterward that it was overkill for 41 Soviet tank division.




Managed to make a small encirclement with the help of Romanian tanks. Also, I bring unfroze units, aka XIV Mot Crps to the front.


Manually move SUs out of Rumanian High Command to its Rum Army.




Impressive combat effectiveness of Romanian troops.


Here's the general progress made on the Ukrainian front. Not that much compared to 1st turn. I also moved the depot to Lvov and moved airwings a little bit closer for further operation.

T02 - Ground phase - AGC/AGN

Here are the details of the Bialystok-Minsk pocket and its clearing plan. Nothing interesting that needs to be addressed here.




Here's the Vilnius-Lithuania-Kurland pocket. Again, nothing interesting.




The general plan for the battle around Smolensk. For 3rd PzGrp, their plan is to advance toward Smolensk region and see whether there's any opportunity for breakthrough. I don't expect much about them since they are currently not concentrated. For 2nd PzGrp, their task is to go around Soviet defense line and try to encircle Smolensk.
(That NATO withdraw signs I draw for 3rd PzGrp means I'm not expecting to engage enemies seriously for them.)


Just as expected, heavy resistance around Polotsk region.


For XXXIX Mot Crps, they also met some Soviet tank troops. My motorized division failed to push Soviet troops back even though they got a panzerjaeger battalion as reinforcement.


That's why I put two more Panzerjaeger SU as reinforcement and hopefully, it can destroy the combat capacity of that new Soviet tank division.


It works pretty well, especially for that SdKfz-8. Right now, I realized that when against Soviet tank division in 41, it's better to use motorized division that reinforced with panzerjaeger SU rather than tank division. German tank is too precious in early turns and is inferior against T-34 and KV-1. If we want to avoid any unnecessary tank losses then it's better to use motorized division to attack them.


After creating a wide gap on the Soviet front, I decided to alter my plan. XXXIX Mot Crps will move deeper into Soviet defense line, forcing enemies in front of LVII Mot Crps to fall back. If they don't fall back in the next turn, I will have a chance to encircle them.




For 2nd PzGrp, their task is much easier. Move into the gap that XXXIX Mot Crps created for them, and maneuver to the back of the Smolensk while sparing some units facing toward Mogilev to guarantee our flank. Right now 2nd PzGrp is lining up in the city of Orsha, waiting to cross the river through the railroad bridge.


The situation around Smolensk at the end of Turn 2.


For 1st PzGrp there's nothing that really worth mentioning except for the breakthrough near Deriglazovo. Apparently, they will not be able to move into Pskov without help from other friendly units. They are probably gonna stay here for a few turns, waiting for friendly infantry units to regroup with them.

Turn 002 Summary

Air Losses




Ground Losses






Operation Cupcake