Bish Bash Boche - A 41 GC JB (A) & Veterin (S)

[jasonbroomer]

T36-37 Axis

I've not much to say about these turns other than I was sheltering from the extensive blizzards covering the whole of Russia. Not only were my troops at the front freezing but the deepness of these storms also hampers my supply chains.

Looking back, between turn 24 (Nov 30th) and turn 37 (1 Mar) at least one third of the front has been under a blizzard every turn! For 9 of those 13 turns, the entire front was under blizzard conditions (or at least 90% of it was).

I think we can count this as a harsh winter? The completion of February completes the end of the winter maluses although we suffer AFV logistical losses (carnage) until the end of March.

In mitigation, the coming turns from March 8 onwards sees no material blizzards, which opens the door for the Axis to begin to have fun again...

[Veterin]

T36 - Soviet Perspective

1

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This was a relatively quiet turn as JB is waiting for winter (and the blizzards) to clear before starting his main 1942 offensive. Only 2 attacks were made by Axis last turn with most of the turn I imagine repositioning units, refitting and building up CPP. This is the OOB at the start of my turn so it’s shaping up to be a close 1942.

2

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No real opportunities to attack around Smolensk this turn so I just readjust my units ready to defend and counter attack where appropriate. Interestingly the 2 elite motorised divisions are no longer on the Smolensk frontlines. They could either be further back on a deposit refitting or moved to another sector which will give me an idea of where the main 1942 offensive will be. Bad weather covers the map this turn but next turn it should be clear so I’ll need to do some extensive recon across the front.

I spent a lot of time going through my support units (SU’s) and their TOE upgrades. I disbanded some SU’s and started building other ones based on my availability of ground elements. Whilst my army HQs were all full of SU’s in 1941, they’re starting to look a little empty.

[Veterin]

T37 - Soviet Perspective

1

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The harsh winter penalties to Axis forces are now over with heavy mud starting to form in some of the southern areas of the front. There is another change to my main infantry TOE which changes from 41C to 42A and it will remain that way until Aug 22. The TOE requires slightly more men and increases the amount Art/AT in my infantry although it will take some time to refit my units.

2

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I reorient a lot of my defence along the double rail lines from Velikie Luki. If there is any attack from this direction it will come across the double rails. Given the frontline is also close to Velikie Luki, keeping troops here creates some pressure for potential counter attacks. Axis need to hold Velikie Luki as it allows the easy transfer between Leningrad and Smolensk.

3

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Wiking, Totenkopf and L.A.H SS are all around Smolensk so I’m inclined to believe Moscow is the target for the 1942 offensive. In the Axis turn, JB pushed me out of one of the last swamp hexes NW of Smolensk so there is no good defensive terrain between his frontline and Vyzama. I decide to put a few units on the clear terrain as a roadblock and attack on both flanks to put some pressure on him. I can’t stop him moving along the clear terrain but I can make sure I limit the number of troops he can send by attacking other areas of the line as well as counter attacks.

4

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Further south it looks based on Axis attacks and where I can see double/triple stack units it looks like he plans to outflank my units further south and advance directly east towards Kharkov. As Axis units in the area have full CPP (based on my scouting), I’ll try and make some attacks in the area and I’ll pull back the yellow and dark blue armies to avoid any units potentially getting surrounded.

[Veterin]

T37 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

5

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I had to overexpose a few units for this counter attack but at least I’ve pushed back the advance and wiped the CPP from the Axis infantry. Despite going into the battle with 4 times the CV, offensive reserve activations and heavy VSS air involvement the battle was pretty close.

6

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Another big attack in true soviet style – overwhelming numbers. Losing 9.5k manpower for 1.5k manpower may seem like a bad trade but if I just let axis forces attack me on their own terms the loss ratios are a lot worse for Soviets. This way has the added benefit of destroying guns too.

Turn 37 is the first turn that Soviets should be able to create Guard rifle divisions by combining 3 airborne brigades. I am unable to do so but I think it’s because my airborne units have no spare MP’s. They were attached as an SU to Stavka last turn so when I bring them onto map they don’t have enough MP’s to combine. I will try again next turn.

In any event, we are playing by a house rule that no more than 10 guard rifle divisions can be created this way (which I think is completely fair enough otherwise this could be exploited). I may not even be able to create all 10 next turn due to guard % caps at this stage of the game in any event.

Lastly, a number of turns ago I built all 58 ski brigades and I am starting to deploy these to the map when they reach 46-47 exp. I want to have a brigade attached to every infantry division on map. Where I have excess brigade capacity, I will pull some of my ski battalions out of units and send them to the TB. I plan to use ski brigades all year around as they don’t require any capacity limited production and having any brigade is better than no brigade at all.

[jasonbroomer]

T38 Axis - second week in March

At long last, we seem to be getting the first spell on decent weather since November

T38 first blizzard free turn since November.png (695.98 KiB) Viewed 1493 times

Attacking in blizzards is a bit of a lottery, as committed troops can not show up on the battlefield, which seems to affect the Axis more than the Soviets although this is not mentioned in the manual. Anyway, we take the opportunity to exercise our guns.

To the NE of Smolensk, we do an expensive be necessary attack to clear some heavy woods

T38 AGC a expensive attaack to clear important hex.png (2.94 MiB) Viewed 1493 times

Even with Model and overwhelming odds, we still suffer over 1,000 casualties.

Fortunately the retreat path was kind to us and we able to hit them again with motorised

T38 AGC with a nice follow up attack.png (2.96 MiB) Viewed 1493 times

That's more like it!

[jasonbroomer]

T38 Axis Central/South


Dear old Heinrici has been sitting somewhere north of Gomel in a quiet part of the front following our extensive retreat from the outskirts of Kursk. It a waste of an excellent general but I never got around to repositioning him

Anyway a suicidal Cossack division tempted him to bite this week, which he did with aplomb. Under the new beta CPP rules, the unit only loses 10 points of combat preparation - a nice freebie!

T38 AGCnew attrion rules, only 10pt CPP cost.png (3 MiB) Viewed 1484 times

Moving further south, we become more aggressive as we have more troops in this area, so we concentrate on building up some attritional attacks.

T38 AGCS Attrional attacks.png (4.02 MiB) Viewed 1484 times

T38 AGS Blasting our way forward.png (3.32 MiB) Viewed 1484 times

[jasonbroomer]

T38 Axis AGS

However, we do make mistakes from time to time

T38 AGS Snafu.png (3.45 MiB) Viewed 1479 times

I charitably described this as a SNAFU at the time, I have no idea what I was thinking at the time (I think I might have been trying to attack with 2 or 3 divisions but the other divisions didn't have enough MPs to participate). Upon review I think this needs to go in go in the FUBAR category. Thankfully Rendulic is a good general and he called off the attack before too much damage was done.

Nevertheless, we do some sensible things and occasionally stretch ourselves to obtain a rout on a second attack

T38 AGS Stretching for routing oportunities.png (2.97 MiB) Viewed 1479 times

This is not ideal attacking conditions, but we must take the opportunity of the half decent weather and pay back the Soviets for all the misery that they've caused over the last 4 months.


Pleasingly, my winter's homework paid off - I actually read the manual on the airwar! Accordingly, I have refined how I set up my air directives. I'm not risking using bombers during March (its still a harsh winter) and anyway I am still in supply hoarding mode. Nevertheless my defensive fighter action is paying good dividends in the Soviet air phase.

T38study to improve airgame is paying off.png (728.92 KiB) Viewed 1479 times

[Veterin]

T38 - Soviet Perspective

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2

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OOB and ground losses screens at the start of my turn (so the Soviet action phase relates to turn 37 not turn 38). Heavy fighting across the front as JB has begun his 1942 offensive.

We have a house rule of no more than 10 guard rifle divisions converted from airborne brigades. I created 5 this turn and will create the final 5 next turn. The newly formed divisions only have ~60% TOE so I sit them all on a deposit to refit for a turn. I have rebuilt a number of airborne brigades after the conversions as I still want to use these SU’s as attachment to my infantry divisions.

3

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I have some decisions to make around the Leningrad front over the next few turns. I have a lot of strong units in the area that could be better utilised elsewhere unless I start making some progress here. Axis forces have high CV and are well fortified however they are weak in numbers as they only need to hold this front whilst attacking elsewhere. In the far north there are 1-2 hexes that have heavy forest with the rest being light forest. In the south there is even more opportunity as those 3 axis troops with ~100 CV are on swamp/heavy wood hexes but if I can move those units off those, there is only clear/light forest terrain behind it and it opens up more areas I can attack from (drawing Axis units away from other areas of the line). The defensive CV would be overstated due as these are single division units on these hexes so once damage starts being done to the ground elements, CV drops quickly despite the high CV multipliers from terrain/fort levels.

4

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A very narrow victory with the help of VSS forces despite a reserve activation! Around 1/3rd of Axis forces was damaged/disrupted as part of this combat so that along with the reduction in fort levels is enough to be victorious despite having lower CV going into the battle. CV numbers also don’t take into account the quality of units used (3 high quality guard rifle divisions). I really want to hold this hex (and the 2 swamp hexes south of it) so I move 3 divisions with ~90 def CV into the conquered hex. It won’t be enough to hold though if JB attacks in numbers.

[Veterin]

T38 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

5

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A similar dynamic played out here where a seemingly strong defensive CV crumbles when heavily outnumbered. This was another important hex as it opens up a 2-3 hex wide gap where there is no swamps/heavy forests for Axis to form a strong defensive line.

6

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7

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These sort of attacks aren’t always successful though. It can be a bit counter intuitive but as Soviets when you outnumber an enemy often you don’t want the battle to be halted. Axis forces deal a lot of damage to you as you close the distance but when you get close, numbers come into play and you start damaging/disrupting the axis ground elements. So whilst this battle was halted 1:3.5 and 1:2.1 CV respectively, if it didn’t halt the outcome of the final CV would be more in Soviets favour (or so I believe anyway).

8

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I didn’t take a screenshot of the start of my turn here but this is what it looks like near the end. My army command structure from the Central Front was all over the place due to movement over winter so I’ve reassigned most of the divisions to clean up the HQ hierarchy. I’ve left a gap on most of the clear hexes as I am unable to defend it and it forces JB to move along clear hexes allowing for easier counter attacks. Consistent with winter, I have both my guard rifle corps in this area as well as a few other guard rifle divisions. I haven’t seen any Panzer divisions yet but given all the elite motorised divisions around Smolensk, I’m still convinced Moscow remains the 1942 objective.

[Veterin]

T38 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

9

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With some good old fashion unit scouting, Axis forces are on the defensive between Smolensk and Chernigov. Units are spaced out with a 1 hex gap so they can provide stronger defence with fewer units and most of these are sitting in strong defensive terrain. This is useful information to know as it means I can shift some of these forces north or south if/when it’s required.

10

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I thought about counter attacking on the northern axis advance here but figured with triple stack units they’d be strong and I captured a lot of ground over winter so I don’t need to fight right near Axis supply lines. These units look like they’re planning to advance along the double lines to Kursk so I have pulled back and put my stronger units in good defensive terrain along the double rails. The red army got mauled by Axis forces last turn so most of them are now refitting on a deposit.

Further south the dark grey and yellow armies have also pulled back to the line of light wooded terrain. You can see where these units were at the start of the turn with all the abandoned forts.

11

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I used half my dark grey army and half my blue army to attack a stack of axis infantry (from 3 hexes). The results were better than I was expecting with only a 4:1 loss ratio and 110 Axis guns destroyed (including 10 150mm howitzers). Due to stacking rules, the only hex they could retreat to already had 3 axis units in it so the defeated units had to retreat further leading to higher retreat damage. Most of my units in the attack can’t retreat but I think that will be ok as further east there is a lot of hexes for Axis to flip before getting to these units. They’ll more likely just be attacked directly from the south next turn.

12

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This is my disposition of troops at the end of the turn. Aside from some localised counter attacks I have generally pulled back across the frontline. The 2 armies that are near Poltava will be pulled back next turn unless there is an opportunity for a “safe” counterattack.

[jasonbroomer]

T39 Axis

Here we are in the middle of March and we are drawing out our panzers from their winter vacation. I started this process towards the end of February and with hindsight I might have started a turn or two early. Anyway, 4th Panzer is ready to greet them and to speed up their CPP build as this remains on an assault status (I've learnt the hard way that it is much easier to keep the 4 Panzer armies on assualt rather than be clever and shift it elsewhere. There is a minor advantage of keeping Panzer armies on assault (+1 admin?) and giving 11th Army assault status is perhaps not a good idea as this army gets recategorised later.

The first batch of panzers is assigned to AGS are are massed on the south Polish border, sorry Vet you guessed wrong Moscow is not our objective for '42...

T39 Pz assemble on border .png (4.55 MiB) Viewed 1389 times

In the north, the Soviets finally attack and move into the decent terrain. They've had all winter to do this, why now? Anyway I really don't care about AGN, it's an irrelevance.

T39 AGN why now, they could have done this through much of winter .png (3.09 MiB) Viewed 1389 times

In the Centre we continue to make attritional attacks, were we can with a follow up attack to drumb any retreatees.

T39 AGC a one two punch .png (3.69 MiB) Viewed 1389 times

As always Model is the sharpest tool in the Axis box.

[jasonbroomer]

T39 Axis South

Our near term objective is Kharkov, I hope to secure this level 9 railyard before the spring rains arrive. Capturing it before then will give me a chance to repair it while we sit through the heavy mud stasis.

1st Panzer advances northwards, fingers crossed that this is enough defensive CV to prevent Vet from counterattacking. I'd feel alot better with some panzers in reserves - just 3 more week to wait before they arrive

T39 AGS hope this holds .png (3.58 MiB) Viewed 1384 times

In the very south, the Soviets pull back to Stalino. I'll happily reoccupy that land. Vet had isolated 3 divisions of the 11th army (purple) though this is inconsequential.

T39 AGS an avenue of clear terrain has appeared .png (3 MiB) Viewed 1384 times

[Veterin]

In the north, the Soviets finally attack and move into the decent terrain. They've had all winter to do this, why now? Anyway I really don't care about AGN, it's an irrelevance.

Believe me, i've been attacking as many times as possible around Leningrad. It's a slow slog as i need to rebuild CPP each time given the favourable defensive terrain/forts.

[Veterin]

T39 - Soviet Perspective


Only a handful of Axis attacks this turn as they reposition units in the south following my pullback. My manpower replenishment needed some much-needed respite!

Looks like JB has transferred most of his AFV assets back onto the map with ~3k AFVs arriving this turn (in addition to their manpower/guns). Will be very interested to see where they go.

I converted my final 5 air brigade to guard rifle divisions this turn. Given how the intensity of combat over 1941, my guard build up is coming along nicely.

1

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Holds like this are always nice to see. I had a lot of units with reserve on here so when Axis forces were attacking a strong defensive position (3 rifle divisions + brigades), I was fortunate enough to have 2 additional rifle divisions join the party.

2

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This is a good opportunity to talk about Soviet TB requirements. Whilst in 1941, soviets are often running 90% ground TB as they need as many units on map as possible, now that the frontline is more stable, I want to make sure I don’t bleed anymore VPs from TBs. TB requirements decrease in 1941 but they start increasing again in 1942 with the next change taking into effect on 1 Apr 1942. As I have cancelled every automated transfer, I need to plan ahead for these changes.

These are some fairly substantial uplifts with the Northern ground requirements increasing from 75 to 110 and Far East increasing from 140 to 150. Air requirements have also increased but I find these more manageable as Soviets have more AOGs than they can use on map. Rather than send experienced formations to the TBs, I generally like sending depleted infantry divisions so they replenish and train up whilst contributing to the TB (make sure to change max TOE back to 100 before doing so!).

3

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I only made 1 attack this turn but it was a big one. I thought It would be a lot easier to win though as I had x3 the CV going into it (based on what I could see) and I attacked from 3 hexes full stacked (including calv corps + brigade attachments on all units). The defending Axis infantry were also involved in attacks the previous turn so they would have had damaged/disrupted units with high fatigue too. There were a lot of Romanian SU attachments to these units so I suppose that made this unit a lot stronger than it looked on paper as numerical advantage wasn’t as I was expecting. Despite having VSS involvement in the battle it looks like they did little in the way of damage/disruption to Axis ground forces so the LW must have intercepted many of them.

4

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This is my troop disposition at the end of my turn. I pulled all my units out of the Poltava salient as there is a risk of encirclement if I stuck around. I plan to hold the Kharkov/Sumy line as long as It makes sense to do so as it will likely be a few turns before the Panzers make it back to the frontline from their vacation in France.

[jasonbroomer]

T40 Axis

Absent my panzers, I am really lacking mobility so any action needs to be measured. Fortunately in the centre, General Model knows how to deal with the Soviets in his own unrestrained manner

T40 AGCa neat combo netting an important marsh hex.png (3.63 MiB) Viewed 1268 times

This opens the route out of Smolensk and should force the Russians in the two marsh hexes to the south of this battle to withdraw, without having to dig them out of those forts.

As Vet mentioned, he withdrew from the Poltava salient

T40 AGS Unsurprisingly the sovs retreated from the salient .png (3.52 MiB) Viewed 1268 times

I was kinda hoping that this would happen as I don't have the mobile assets to really cut off this area and it saves my foot sloggers the graft of a frontal assault. At the same it keeps my advance limited to the rail repaired single line heading directly north from D'town. I am still in truck preservation mode, so I aim to keep my advance close to my rail head.

Even without much mobility, we still manage to land some stinging one-twos by the motorised assets that we have on the map

T40 AGS with limited mobility, it's back to the one two.png (3.45 MiB) Viewed 1268 times

[jasonbroomer]

T40 Axis Admin

We finally get round to firing this clown

T40 finally sack him.png (401.89 KiB) Viewed 1260 times

Fehn isn't terrible but he's a bit dim witted for a Motorised corps and I seem to have dreadful luck with him, just look at his win loss ratio. Appalling.

We managed to get the Soviet casualties to 100,000. This is a good target to aim for as the Soviets will find it difficult to increase their army size while suffering losses of this magnitude. However, it is not easy to sustain this rate of attrition.

T40 losses.png (537.66 KiB) Viewed 1257 times

When my panzers finally get released into Russia, my rail system will become overloaded. Panzer divisions take a lot of rail capacity. Over winter, my RADs have been gradually building the Crimea rail system into working order (one hex at a time!). If I can land a couple of Pz divsions in the Crimea, these can be railed north to D'town using otherwise unused rail track/rail yard capacity. In fact you can see the RAD completing the track in Sevastapol this turn - just in time!

Shipping units using naval transport can be problematic, troop ships can hit mines, and divisions can lose 20-30% of their ToE as a consequence. Thus, I need to secure and control a sea lane corridor (interdiction level >20), to protect my panzers. 30 He 111s running a naval patrol for a day or two is all that is required. I run two bomber runs to make a nice lane:

T40 AGS Naval patrol to clear pz shipping lanes.png (2.04 MiB) Viewed 1260 times

All very neat. Unfortunately, I subsequently discover that I can only load a panzer division on ships from Constanta every other turn . This greatly slows my shipping operation, and is highly very frustrating. I thought 16 troop ships (see Production screen) in the area would have been more than enough. This meant that the naval patrol had to be maintained for 3 turns. Anyway, I hope it meant that some rail capacity through the Lvov pinchpoint was spared to get some supply through as the Panzer expresses were running.

[Veterin]

T40 - Soviet Perspective

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2

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I feel like I’m starting to get traction around Leningrad. I’m not going to capture Leningrad anytime soon but if I keep putting pressure it will divert axis resources from other fronts or I’ll achieve hex by hex progress. The first attack was unsuccessful but a second attack on the same Infantry division resulted in a win and I now control 2 of the 3 key swamp/heavy forest hexes. JB will need more troops to stop a breakout in this area on less favourable terrain too. There is a single infantry division in swamps with a lvl 3 fort and estimated 125 defensive CV which is massive however as I surround the unit from 5 hexes, numbers should be able to break it when I attack even if my CV is lower.

3

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What started as a few isolated attacks evolved into a full-blown offensive. Last turn I cleared some of the favourable defensive terrain south of Lake Ilmen and there was 1 defensive hex holding part of the front. I used my 2 cavalry corps to attack with the first time being a halt and the second follow up attack succeeding. I rush what units I have in the area into the gap even though they are low CPP and some are weak on TOE too. Those 2 weak rifle divisions in green are more there as a roadblock to eat up MP/cause delays rather than actually planning to hold that ground. I just didn’t want the frontline units being cut-off.

I don’t think Axis forces have enough divisional level units in the area to cover this advance so JB will either have to break into regiments in some areas or pull back from some of his strong defensive positions to shorten the front.

4

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Axis forces made 2 attacks last turn with the second one causing heavy losses. Sometimes I wish defeated soviet units would just route as retreating 1 hex and being hit a second time causes massive losses. Given Axis elite units are still around Smolensk and Panzers are likely on their way to the frontline, I need to strengthen this area. I already have a number of guard units in the area (green) and I send 5 more guard rifle divisions (top of screen in yellow) which are the final 5 I’ve converted from airborne brigades. They were refitting at Stavka for 1 turn as once combined, TOE is only ~60%.

It’s a nice problem to have but I am running out of command points on my fronts in the area so I have started using Moscow D.Z too. It’s probably a bit late but I’ve built 5 fortified regions west of Vyzama to build up some additional fort levels. I will need to add more depth to my line though once the panzers are here as any breakthrough would be disastrous for me.

[Veterin]

T40 - Soviet Perspective Cont...

5

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I wish there was a total included on this screen so you could see the aggregate values across all ground elements where it’s a comparable number (such as manpower in the last column). I generally look at “Rifle Squads” as a proxy as they use the majority of manpower requirements but you can see there are lots of other ground elements that also need manpower. I currently have a 311k manpower shortage in Rifle Squads alone let alone all the other ground elements. I have ~76k worth of manpower on refit from Rifle Squads alone (on map units).

As I produce around ~120k manpower per turn this shortage will not be resolved anytime soon, especially as Axis forces are making their attacks. As the snow melts heavy mud might give me a few turns reprieve and I receive a bonus 200k on 1 Apr 1942 which will go a long way to filling out my forces.

The last few turns I’ve had to send depleted infantry divisions to the TB to meet the new requirements shortly so that has drained some of my manpower. I’m not sure how much additional manpower is needed to form tank corps (from 2 brigades + 1 motorised) but I’ll soon find out in Apr 1942. At least all my TB requirements are more or less met for the next year and I might even be able to pull some back onto the map as their CV values rise (from exp/morale).

[jasonbroomer]

T41 Axis Overview

It's the end of March and the Panzer convoy needs to get rolling from Poland. I haven't really made up my mind what to do with them yet, a decision needs to be made. We have Leningrad, Moscow is an option as is a drive to the Caucuses.

First some musing on TBs, which we are playing unlocked. These do create an additional interesting dimension to the game (as if there weren't already). I think playing unlocked gives the Soviets an advantage for turns 4-16 as they are able to bolster their defences during a critical period by raiding their TBs for formations. The Axis get some nice to haves such as the 2 powerful RFSS brigades which are uber SUs but the offensive seems to hit a wall of Russians quickly with TBs unlocked. I caution this analysis however, as this is only my second HtH, and the first with TBs unlocked. However, the Axis gains the advantage during the winter. Armour can be sent off to France in exchange for valuable infantry. The additional 2 RADs released from Norway on turn 1 also make winter supply a little more bearable.

We reached 590 VPs before winter set in. We declined to take Kharkov and Stalino in November as we knew that we couldn't hold them. We have accumulated a further dozen or so VPs from TBs (I think I was lucky through this period to get so many, though unlucky to not get very many in the early turns).

I don't have much territory.

In the north, Vet remains active, and frankly is becoming a bit of a nuisance but Leningrad is secure.

T41 AGN interesting.png (2.86 MiB) Viewed 1159 times

In the centre, we are defending the outskirts of Smolensk i.e. we haven't got very farbut the super depot there has kept our troops fed through the winter.

T41Centre recon.png (3.26 MiB) Viewed 1159 times

In what I refer to as AGCS, the Gomel-Kursk sector, we have fallen back a long way during winter but the upside is that our depots have an excess of supply

T41 South recon.png (1.58 MiB) Viewed 1159 times

In the south, we have given up the ground around Stalino and defended D'town through the winter. (This shot is from T39)

T39 AGS an avenue of clear terrain has appeared .png (3 MiB) Viewed 1159 times

Thankfully Sevastapol is in the bag though the Soviets have a foothold in the Crimea, through a fort at Kerch. We are now gunning for Kharkov before the mud sets in.


What to do?

I'd much prefer to put the North to bed and ignore it for the rest of the year. There are no VPs left in the area and the terrain favours the defender, yet I have now been pushed out of the decent terrain. Irritating! I am not going to be distracted though and send off a division or two to shore up the defences. I'll also keep my strategic reserve in the area on standby in case of a breakthrough.

The road to Moscow is thick with guard divisions, bloated like bluebottles swarming over the carcass of a still born lamb on a warm spring's day. See the centre recon shot above, many of these IDs are triple stacked in strong terrain. Not a pleasant simile, not a pleasant road.

Stalingrad/the Caucuses remain the obvious option. We have a decent supply framework now, the terrain is favourable for the attacker. However, we still have to get through 2-300 miles of the Donets basin before we can start. Stalingrad appears a long way away.

However, although not a critical sector, AGCS defences appear very porous (see map third above). Vet does not tend to defend deep, but sets up a hard as nails front and counterattacks at every opportunity. This sector has some big units but with plenty of gaps to funnel panzers through. Casualties so far have been pretty heavy, but Vet has done a great job of keeping his divisions from been surrounded. It would be good to thin down his OOB a little.

My conclusion is to mass my panzers in the south and quietly around AGCS. I shall start my campaign in the south (where the weather tends to be better). 3-4 panzers will go to Smolensk where we will continue to demonstrate - as is about to be illustrated, victories can be found here. Some further air recon of AGCS is desirable, I'll do a more intensive recon in a couple of turns time just to make sure. I don't want to alert Vet of my intentions!

[Stamb]

can you share your production pool, or maybe in PM if it is a secret (i promise, i will not show it to Vet )