Matrix Games Forums

This is a game of DNO between Miller41 ( Russians ) and LarryFulkerson ( Axis ).

Here's the front lines before anything is moving:

I ( the Axis ) had only one combat round before the turn ended, so here's the moves for turn 1:
 

Aha the Bialystok "kessel" [:D]

Here's the Axis loss report(s) :



Well, okay SOME of the losses are reported above. I'm not sure you guys want to see the entire list of stuff. What DO you guys want to see? The HRSs and maybe the tanks and maybe the planes? Or????

Well I don't know. Why are Heavy Rifle Squads particularly important? I haven't examined the equipment database ...

It is difficult to know what to put in these AARS, since the amount of feedback is generally so minimal. Perhaps an idea would be to only show the inventory report when an item has run out or is getting low? Or to show the disparity between Soviet and German replacement rates for something? I.e. put the numbers into some kind of context.

Just thinking out loud, and thanks once again for your efforts. I find that doing a decent AAR is nearly as much effort as playing the game [;)]

Here's the moves in turn 2 just before the first combat round:
 

You said it, HRS, tanks and planes are what interests me the most. Looks like another great AAR in the making.

There were 6 ( six ) count 'em combat rounds in the Axis turn two.  I don't remember the last time I got 6 rounds.  Maybe I'm learning something.
 
Here's the turn two moves for the Axis:
 

Here's a glimpse at some of the Axis losses so far:
 

Here's a close-up of some of the turn 2 moves:
 

I'm in the midst of moving the Axis units in turn 3 and I ran across some pseudo-partisans.  They're called remnants and I'm thinking that's a realistic touch for the designer to have done that:
 

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I'm in the midst of moving the Axis units in turn 3 and I ran across some pseudo-partisans.  They're called remnants and I'm thinking that's a realistic touch for the designer to have done that:

That sure is. Isolated Soviet regular units were a menace to the Germans. And many joined up with local partisans.

Hi Larry,
I also watch your AARs with great interest and am impressed by how quick you get the turns out and the quality of your AARs.
Please keep them up! I find they are very good as learning tools of right (and wrong) ways to do things in certain scenarios as well as which scenarios are worth starting for myself.
A question though.
On your second picture/post where you show your units at the end of turn 1 that have essentially encircled a large number of Russian units where it says "east Poland".
If your encirclement is complete and therefore their supply is cut would it not be better to hold off doing any attacks including overrun attacks until the next turn so that these destroyed units don't generate replacements? I realise this slows down your advance but those replacements will return and bite you in 10-20 turns I think!
A general question to all is for these large scenarios is it better to go slow and destroy Russians by surrounding them and thereby reducing the replacements in later turns or go hell for leather for distant objectives?
I have found that the hell for leather doesn't seem to work beyond about turn 10-15 and you ran into too many strong Russian units.

regards
Peter

ORIGINAL: pbhawkins
If your encirclement is complete and therefore their supply is cut would it not be better to hold off doing any attacks including overrun attacks until the next turn so that these destroyed units don't generate replacements?

Damn it Peter, if I knew the answer to that question I might be able to win at DNO and FitE instead of losing everytime I play *anybody*.

The Pros would be that supply is used up by my forces more slowly, the wear and tear on my units would be less and as you've said yourself, the equipment of those surrounded units wouldn't wind up in the replacements pool to be fought against again in a later turn.

The Cons would be that as I'm waiting that turn to finish the surround, more Russian units might be escaping to the east that I might have caught and killed. And the closer the turns approach that allow the Russian those boatload of reinforcements every turn. I've heard people say that the German has to go hell-for-leather and kill as many Soviets as possible, cover as much territory as possible, grab as many objectives as possible as quickly as possible especially in the early turns and I watched as an opponent did that to me ( I was playing the Soviet side ) and he won the FitE game we were playing. And he won in less than 90 turns. I must say I was impressed.

Having said all that I guess I'm leaning toward the go fast and kill 'em now and just live with the fact that you're going to be seeing them again. My hope is that I can run over the early speedbumps quickly and maybe in turns 10 - 15 take the time to surround stuff since that's when the more troublesome Soviet roadblocks seem to form.

ORIGINAL: pbhawkins
A general question to all is for these large scenarios is it better to go slow and destroy Russians by surrounding them and thereby reducing the replacements in later turns or go hell for leather for distant objectives?

This is an excellent question and I would love to see a debate on the forum about it. Please post a thread there with this question and I'll help get the debate started. How about that?

I've heard stories about how Soviet SB-2s were made of cast iron and how hard it is to destroy them via air strikes and here's a true story ( over a hundred attackers and only a handfull of destroyed SB-2s ):
 

I didn't know that river boats had AA or maybe my JU-87's were the victums of mid-air collisions or something:
 

Here's the moves of the Axis as of just after the first combat round:
 

Here's just some of the Axis losses so far:
 

Here it is turn 3 and I'm only just now approaching Minsk.  I had hoped to trap most of the Soviets on the west side of the river and kill it but as it is it appears that most of the stuff you see in the vicinity of Minsk will be able to escape to the east side of the river.  I could try to bust the bridge with my aircraft but I'm thinking that I don't have enough aircraft not resting to gain the percentage needed to blow the bridge.  Still there's a lot of stuff there to be trapped and killed:
 

Here's the approach to Riga.  I had the good luck to have the Soviet player have most of his units go into reorg so that they were stationary long enough for me to get some units between them and Riga so they couldn't build an immovable object type of defense there.  There are a number of blown bridges and I'm having to bring up enough engineers to fix them so the offensive can continue.  My blinking engineer tried to fix the bridge right in the face of enemy units and it didn't work: