smokindave34 (Axis) vs M60A3TTS (Soviet) 41 CG

[M60A3TTS]

Week 9 - 17 August 1941

Clear skies almost everywhere.

In the north, Tallinn is still holding out. Several German attacks south of the Luga River, but no major push.




In the center, Smolensk is finally surrounded. I did not try to evacuate the garrison, and am quite satisfied to have held it this long. It will take a little time before any Axis depot is providing meaningful supplies.




Farther south, Gomel has been lost and motorized units are in the area. I suspect more pressure here fairly soon.




The biggest Axis gains are in the south. Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye are both surrounded.




The Rumanians are at the door of the Crimea.

[GloriousRuse]

Is the south due to the COFMs, terrain, or something else do you think?

[M60A3TTS]

I would have to say the more open terrain.

[M60A3TTS]

Interdiction is reduced this week based on the number of what I consider to be viable targets.




While on the subject of air units, here is a screenshot of some of the pilots counts in my units on the map.




Some of these units have over 60 decent pilots. If for some reason I were to send them to the reserves and then back onto the map, I would only get 32 pilots back for 32 planes. Starting on turn 12, I would only get 20 pilots back with 20 planes. I'm not sure what happens to the excess in the reserves, but after two turns there, the pilot total always shows zero. We know they are somewhere, but in any case I would prefer to have 60 good pilots for a unit to use instead of 32 or 20. The excess pilots for a unit on the map simply hang out until their friends are killed or captured, and they move in to take their place. Any units that get down to 20 pilots after turn 12, sending them to the reserves for training etc is fine. Meanwhile, I'll continue to carry the excess in my units. That can easily add up to over a thousand pilots on top of the ones being trained normally.

[M60A3TTS]

Here is Moscow Air Command.




This isn't actively supporting anyone, but is really just waiting for some more modern aircraft. As they become available, either part of or the whole air division/AOG will be sent out to support the front line. You can see this is one of those 67 pilot units, so once they are flying Yaks, this will be a much more effective air unit. In comparison, the North Caucasus Air Command, aka the "Boneyard" has very few planes, but still a lot of skilled pilots. Eventually they too will be converted and sent to the front as the modern aircraft become available, and this indeed may run well into 1942. The bottom line remains that I am extending the usefulness of the good pilots that I started the game with.

[M60A3TTS]

Down at Sevastopol, I have a full fighter division with nearly 150 MiGs ready to either contest all enemy naval patrols or bombing missions. If the garrison is going to be defeated, I want them to have an escape route and maybe at the same time bring down some enemy aircraft.

[xhoel]

Looking forward to seeing the clash over Sevastopol.

[Seminole]

Curious about your spot interdiction efforts.
Can you show more detail about your air directives?

What kind of interdiction level are you achieving at this stage?

Are the Axis contesting, or are the Luftwaffe fighters too far back?.

Great AAR!

[Stephan61]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Down at Sevastopol, I have a full fighter division with nearly 150 MiGs ready to either contest all enemy naval patrols or bombing missions. If the garrison is going to be defeated, I want them to have an escape route and maybe at the same time bring down some enemy aircraft.

Are you encountering any trouble in getting the Mig's to engage a Axis Naval Patrol, ive tried everything from AS, ensuring they do not fly in Friendly Phase etc, but they just dont want to engage...

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: Stephan61

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Down at Sevastopol, I have a full fighter division with nearly 150 MiGs ready to either contest all enemy naval patrols or bombing missions. If the garrison is going to be defeated, I want them to have an escape route and maybe at the same time bring down some enemy aircraft.

Are you encountering any trouble in getting the Mig's to engage a Axis Naval Patrol, ive tried everything from AS, ensuring they do not fly in Friendly Phase etc, but they just dont want to engage...

I have not in the past. At this point there has been no attempt by Dave to fly it at Sevastopol.

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

Curious about your spot interdiction efforts.
Can you show more detail about your air directives?

What kind of interdiction level are you achieving at this stage?

Are the Axis contesting, or are the Luftwaffe fighters too far back?.

Great AAR!

Thank you.

Here are the interdiction missions flown by Long Range Air Command in the Smolensk area. Two sorties of the standard default 24 aircraft per mission each day flying over three days for a total of 144 aircraft. Three targets were attacked so 432 aircraft committed in all.





All 3 missions targeted swamp hexes.

All of the interdiction numbers shown on here as well as the number on the map where a red star is present are actually counted as 1/10ths. So a 3 where a starred hex appears is actually an interdiction level of 0.3. In this case that is still sufficient to eliminate administrative movement in the hex for both motorized and infantry units. This automatically adds +1 movement for all units entering the hex.

If the interdiction level was high enough, it could add another MP to the cost, but that requires committing more planes to the missions and would generate correspondingly higher losses. Here with interdiction under 1.0 it still costs 8MP for motorized and 3MP for infantry units to enter the hex.





With a lot of zoc locks already in place and some of these in very good defensive terrain, it will slow down their movement considerably. This will do fine for now.




One thing the AI does that I wish it didn't is always picking the same unit for the missions where an entire AOG is assigned until it can no longer meet requirements. That tends to leave a lot of planes in other air units sitting idle. The solution may be to fly more small unit air missions, but I'm still experimenting with different configurations.




As far as enemy fighters go, if the missions are not flying over many enemy-controlled ground hexes, CAP doesn't seem to be sent up nearly as often, even if said fighters are close and rested. Since I am targeting hexes near the front lines, I'm not really seeing any opposition.

[M60A3TTS]

Week 10 - 24 August 1941

Now with vilcum's "Memories of the rain" map mod.

Dave is starting to make progress. After ten turns, he seems to have a number of things figured out.

In the north, Tallinn has fallen with heavy ground losses. The 71st Fighter Regiment extracts some significant bomber losses. The 304th Rifle Division seems to have a faint chance of escape to the west. So begins the long march of the survivors...




In the center, another city falls. Time has run out for the defenders of Smolensk. More heavy ground losses are accompanied by the almost complete loss of fighters sent to challenge the Luftwaffe. It seems to be a case of "feast or famine" in the air.




South of Bryansk, elements of three motorized corps break through our lines. A number of divisions south of the penetration will have difficulty disengaging.




Around Kharkov-Belgorod, the Southwestern Front is mostly quiet, but the German forces here are closing on Kharkov fast.




Farther south, Dnepropetrovsk is lost and Zaporozhye totally surrounded. The German motorized troops are pressing on to the east.




In the Crimea, classic move by Dave. He was not showing any panzers at the end of last turn, but there they come barreling through from the eastern approach and cut off several Soviet divisions.

[M60A3TTS]

The Crimea battles were not without cost to the Luftwaffe that flew in their bombers without escort.

[M60A3TTS]

The main air activity by Long Range Air Command is centered on the area south of Bryansk. River crossing sites are hit with the expectation of ground units re-taking specific areas not impacted by the air forces.

[M60A3TTS]

The resulting action was not as promising as hoped. The undetected presence of one unit and the inability to find an appropriate unit to occupy one of the unguarded crossings means that the enemy will be less troubled crossing both rivers.

[M60A3TTS]

A general pullback to the east towards Kharkov and Stalino.




Also falling back on Sevastopol.




OOB




By Orel, the 34th Army from Stavka Reserve has been organized under General-Leytenant I.S. Konev. This army has over 1,200 AFVs. Many are older models, but as Stalin is fond of saying, quantity has a quality of its own.

[Beethoven1]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Down at Sevastopol, I have a full fighter division with nearly 150 MiGs ready to either contest all enemy naval patrols or bombing missions. If the garrison is going to be defeated, I want them to have an escape route and maybe at the same time bring down some enemy aircraft.

So do fighters themselves provide naval interdiction values? Is that what the 1s and 2s are in the sea on the map, those are from the fighters providing naval interdiction value? I had thought it was only bombers on naval interdiction missions that make naval interdiction, but if fighters can too, then it does seem more viable than I thought to try to defend Sevastopol and have some prospect of escaping, since Soviets have a large # of fighters. Although by the time you get pushed into Sevastopol proper, you should be running fairly low on air bases, which seems like it could make it too easy for Germany to get the naval interdiction advantage and then Soviet troops can't withdraw.

[M60A3TTS]

Yes, fighters can provide naval interdiction. I am actually not flying any naval patrols at this time, but that will change on any turn I get back where the Axis initiates their own. Additional airfields at Kerch and Bagerovo on the eastern side of the Crimea can also contribute aircraft. I actually started on a level 3 airfield at Sevastopol at the very start of the game but it is taking too long to build.

As far as why the existing 1's and 2's are out there, I really am not sure.

[Kosciuszko]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

As far as why the existing 1's and 2's are out there, I really am not sure.

Because all ports project naval interdiction.

[GloriousRuse]

Ports create inherent naval interdiction based on how damaged they are. It basically assumes that within a certain range you have patrol boats, people directing shore based guns or providing spot reports to aircraft, and things like that. As damage goes up, the amount of interdiction goes down - the old WitW standard was you bombed ports flat if you were coming in any where near them.