Thrashing Around in Russia - RKhan (S) vs Strategator (A)

[RKhan]

Hi everyone, welcome to a joint AAR with myself and Strategator.

We are both new to WITE 2. I have played a couple games of WITE 1 about 6 years ago. This is a learning game for us so we are being very casual and looking for any advice. I've got it easier as Soviet, so I offered to restart if Strategator needs to redo the first few turns. We are on turn 4 and he's happy to far.

House Rules:
No temporary motorization
No paradrops
No naval invasions more than 10 hexes from a friendly, non-isolated hex
No airfield bombing after T1

I was going to do open TBs but I think I messed up the selection but its probably for the best as there is enough to learn.

I'll have pics up as soon as I remember how...

[RKhan]

I think I was the only one to get pics of turn 1 so I will go first.

t1 n before.jpg (851.31 KiB) Viewed 1211 times

Not many units pocketed here.

t1 c before.jpg (886.09 KiB) Viewed 1211 times

There is a large pocket here but plenty of opportunity...

t1 s before.jpg (690.23 KiB) Viewed 1211 times

A curious openning, I will let Strat comment on his intention here.

[RKhan]

In the north I run away and build a line. I want to wait and see how aggressive he gets.

t1 n after.jpg (762.94 KiB) Viewed 1207 times

I open the pocket in the center, and could have cut off the panzer spearhead, but that would be harsh on T1 so I leave it.

t1 c after.jpg (882.75 KiB) Viewed 1207 times

In the south I run away. All the best units are heading north, but I have plenty left over to build what I call the HLYA lines (because I saw them there first). Not sure if they are better than checker board, maybe he can comment. Most of it is rubbish except a few nice units that could not get on rails.

t1 s after.jpg (707.55 KiB) Viewed 1207 times

In the far south I'm preparing to defend Odessa.

[RKhan]

Here is my air set up. I saved anything not trashed and got into the war as best I could. Moscow is holding the units I flew out of pockets.

t1 n air after.jpg (456.44 KiB) Viewed 1206 times

t1 c air after.jpg (459.59 KiB) Viewed 1206 times

t1 s air after.jpg (375.96 KiB) Viewed 1206 times

Comments appreciated. I had some success.... it was a moral victory

t1 bombed 1.jpg (330.21 KiB) Viewed 1206 times

Comments on this bit appreciated.

[RKhan]

My thoughts on turn 1:

The Germans have it much harder. Closing a pocket takes practice.

I think my air settings are all wrong. It will take practice and experiment. I should have played the AI more than a few turns.

I really enjoy not knowing everything and figuring it out. When I have to know the game engine to be successful I don’t enjoy it as much. Unfortunately this game is a bit like that.

[tm1]

My thoughts on turn 1:

The Germans have it much harder. Closing a pocket takes practice.

I think my air settings are all wrong. It will take practice and experiment. I should have played the AI more than a few turns.

I really enjoy not knowing everything and figuring it out. When I have to know the game engine to be successful I don’t enjoy it as much. Unfortunately this game is a bit like that.

Hi
Well being that I am a PVE player that Plays the Axis about the real advice I could give is for your Axis opponent which is he needs to kill , capture or wound no less than 3 million Soviet soldiers at least before Dec 41 and that is whether he was playing against the AI or a human opponent.

Anyway good luck to both of you looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

[Strategator]

Hey all,

first, thanks to RKhan for starting this AAR, explaning the setting and presenting his thoughts for turn 1 already.

As mentioned I am also very new to WITE 2 and have only played a few turns against the AI.
So this will be a learning game for both of us. Reading guides and the manual really helps, but it's a challenge to keep everything in mind.
Also I don't really like the idea of "replaying" a detailled guide and tried to play with my own understanding of the mechanics and knowledge about operation barbaroassa and other Wargames.
As RKhan statet right, I forgot to take Screenshots for turn 1, so my pictures are from the beginning of turn 2.

That said, my thoughts for turn 1 were first of all to recieve the objective of taking Minsk in 1 turn (as it's an objective for victory points).
Also I wanted to see how far I can reach to go for the next 2 objectives Riga and Lvov.
I was able to reach all of these objectives.

Minsk captured.png (3.71 MiB) Viewed 1118 times

Lvov captured.png (4.53 MiB) Viewed 1118 times

Riga captured.png (4.32 MiB) Viewed 1118 times

But the - maybe more important - task to pocket as many units as possible...well, I underestimated a few things here.
First, I was not aware of the possibility of routing units to "warp" really long distances and even through my taken territory.
This took me a lot of possible units in the northern pocket.
In the south I didn't really try to do a good pocket, as I was not aware of the distances of the Panzergruppen and fokused my time on taking Lvov.
Furthermore I was not able to manage to keep the infantry up with the tanks, or place them correctly to close the pocket, so there were a lot of holes in there.

Well, not a great start, but I want to learn this and am still happy to go on with this try. Otherwise we would redo turn 1 again and again
And as said, my 3 objectives to take the victory points were acomplished.


Greetings and really looking forward to this project.

Commentary always welcome!

[RKhan]

Your rail repait unit seems to be behind the start lines on T2 (at least in the south). I think you want to prioritize opening a rail line behind your troops, ideally a double track.

R

[RKhan]

Not much to report as I moved away on this turn.

North:

t2 n before.jpg (852.66 KiB) Viewed 1090 times

I moved back a bit here, if things go well I will defend Pskow area. I need two turns to be ready for that.

t2 n after.jpg (772.49 KiB) Viewed 1090 times

Center:

I plan to leave the Dnepr.

t2 c before.jpg (826.62 KiB) Viewed 1090 times

But I'm happy to sacrifice trash units to cut off the spearhead.

t2 c after.jpg (745.17 KiB) Viewed 1090 times

[RKhan]

In the South, just an after pic. This area is a mess of rubbish units but they might gum up the tracks on his panzers a bit

t2 s after.jpg (478.99 KiB) Viewed 1089 times

Finally, my version of the Doolittle raid. Soviet morale +1

t2 bombed 1.jpg (370.31 KiB) Viewed 1089 times

I am leaving the forts on his route of advance, or those that hold open my terrain to stop automatic conversion. Others I delete.

[Strategator]

Your rail repait unit seems to be behind the start lines on T2 (at least in the south). I think you want to prioritize opening a rail line behind your troops, ideally a double track.

R

Hm, nope, I can assure you, all my construction units are on track and doing their jobs

[Strategator]

Turn 2: not much to report either.

Infantry is trying to catch up with Panzer-spearheads on all fronts.
Repairing of the main double lines towards the front.
AGC (PzGrp) went straight forward to orsha and was able to take it.
AGS startet to advance East, trying to gain control of the main double track.

Next targets: Pskov, Smolensk, maybe Odessa.

AGS starts the advance to the east.png (2.76 MiB) Viewed 1072 times

Orsha taken.png (4.67 MiB) Viewed 1036 times

[Beethoven1]

I think Soviets will easily win here, most likely in 1941 (winter at the latest, if RKhan is aggressive and does actually attack in winter).

However, if you are having fun playing as a learning experience, that is the most important thing. It can be valuable to play a game like this for a bit because you will learn things that you can then not have to learn in another game. But if you want a competitive game, you will most likely need to restart. In particular, having Bialystok pocket broken on turn 1 is pretty killer to game balance.

[RKhan]

I think Soviets will easily win here, most likely in 1941 (winter at the latest, if RKhan is aggressive and does actually attack in winter).

However, if you are having fun playing as a learning experience, that is the most important thing. It can be valuable to play a game like this for a bit because you will learn things that you can then not have to learn in another game. But if you want a competitive game, you will most likely need to restart. In particular, having Bialystok pocket broken on turn 1 is pretty killer to game balance.

I've offered to restart and/or switch sides. But Strat has a good point that we won't learn much without playing through for a while.

[Strategator]

However, if you are having fun playing as a learning experience, that is the most important thing. It can be valuable to play a game like this for a bit because you will learn things that you can then not have to learn in another game.

That’s the spirit.
If it is going to be a short game, so be it. But I really want to learn some things before we start a new game for sure.
Winter mechanics, logistics etc. and I find this is much easier to learn in practice.

Also, I want to find out how far I Can get towards Moscow, dnepopetrowsk, sewastapol and Leningrad before winter starts.
(We are in turn 7 and I was able to take both Kiev and Odessa).

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!
Really appreciate this.
Let’s see how things are going on.

[RKhan]

Skipping ahead to turn 5 as 3 and 4 were uneventful. All pics are end of turn.

In the north I've decided to stand at Lake Pskov. I've got level one forts down and armor on reserve, though they don't seem to activate yet. I know they are well rested with lots of cpp and a decent mech commander so it must just be a Soviet 1941 thing.

t5 n after.jpg (685.99 KiB) Viewed 956 times

In the center I will stand at Smolensk. I made sure to keep the city until after turn 4 due to the bonus victory points. I think he paid a price for taking it with the mobile units instead of infantry, which are just now coming into the area. It appears his railhead is caught up as well.

I'm running active bombing on the panzers in clear terrain and getting decent results.

t5 c after.jpg (699.49 KiB) Viewed 956 times

In the south I get behind the Dnepr. I have no intention of holding Kiev until turn 13 as infantry are in the area with panzers and I don't want to risk an encirclement. I'm trying to guess where he will try to cross the river, it looks like futher to the east.

t5 s after.jpg (778.51 KiB) Viewed 956 times

[RKhan]

Here is my OOB, which is in a very good place as other commentors have said due to escaping early pockets.

t5 oob.jpg (87.84 KiB) Viewed 955 times

And here is a bit of fun as the invasion of Hungary continues

t5 s detail.jpg (250.93 KiB) Viewed 955 times

This unit is almost depleted now though the TOE is still high. You'd think he could live off the rich Hungarian countyside. I should have tried some air drops but all transports are in the north and its a long way over Axis territory.

[RKhan]

Strategator has decided to go for a restart and I think its a great idea. Axis is hard to learn.

Our second attempt is here https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2&t=402099