One side only AAR, DnO lojishen vs. German Opponent, no looking opponent!

[lojishen]

I've always enjoyed the WITP AAR's where only one side posted to a thread, and the opponeng agreed to stay away until after the game completed. That way, the player could not only post what is happening, but future thoughts, fears, and plans as well. My opponent has kindly agreed to such an AAR, so I'll start posting. We are currently around turn 12 so, I'll be posting some catch up first, trying to recapture what I was thinking at the time. Comments are very welcome.

Turn 1:

AGN:

Overall, the Germans had a good first turn, eliminated the bulk of the border forces. However, as a general rule, the penetrations were very broad, but not very deep. My hope in the first turn was to use what available forces I had to try to block off deeper penetration from the Germans in turn 2. In the AGN area, my primary concern were the Dvina crossings at Daugavpils and Plavinas. About the only forces I had availabe were the 11 Inf Corp, a few 11 army divisions, and elements of the 1 Mech Corp. I positioned them thusly:

[lojishen]

AGC, Turn 1:

[Note: Even though I'm playing as the Soviets, for the time being, a breakdown between AGN, AGC, and AGS makes sense for describing the action.]
AGC had very little to work with. Remnents of the 14 Mech, and a couple divisions of the 3rd army. The Third army pulled back some to protect the roads north of Minsk, while the remnants of the 14th Mech plus other forces moved East and South. The Germans hadn't penetrated far along the Northern edge of the Pripet marshes, so I thought getting next to the road there just might slow them down some.

[lojishen]

AGC T1:

South of the Pripet Marshes, the Germans in some sense had their greatest triumphs. While, again, the penetrations weren't that deep, almost my entire border forces were wiped out, something I rarely accomplish as the German. Some forces were generally trapped, but as a general rule I worked to establish at least a minimal front from north to South of the Pripet Marshes.

General 1st Turn Notes:
In DnO, the first three turns see many German advanatage as they move forward. Particularly, they own many of the roads, giving them faster movement, and most rail hexes they capture are undamaged. Thus, my philosophy, is to try to put up at least a thin line of resistence across all roads during the first few turns, even if it means sacrificing important Mech formations. For example, I'm willing to move up the 22 Mk and the 5 Cav south of the Pripet marshes even though, that means, they are likely to be toast in future turns. Every hex I keep out of the Germans hands in the first three turns is a plus. In addition, Soviet reinforcements turn up just north of the Dvina and behind the Stalin Line on T3, more incentive to hold the Dvina and the southern Stalin line on T2.

[lojishen]

AGN Turn 2:

Well, the Dvina crossings are safe, but for the most part, the border forces are gone. The 11 Corp is basically eliminated, and only a couple of 11 Army divisions bar the way to the Dvina crossings. Further North, virtually nothing sits between the Nazi invaders and Riga. On the Dvina, the 5th Airborne corp holds Riga, the 21 Mech moves to Daugavpils, while elements of the 27th army holds the crossings at Plavinas and Jekabpils. The bulk of the 27th army is withdrawing to Pskov. Overall, I'm pleased with the North. While all border forces are eliminated, the invaders will be held short of the Dvina at the end of T3 which will delay their drive onto Leningrad, giving added time to build up a line.

[lojishen]

AGC, newly named the Western Front, T2:

In the Center, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is those formations nearest the German onslaught were either wiped out, surrounded or still frozen, with Wilno suffering two out of the three and basically falling to the Germans. The good news was that the 3 Army divisions did manage to contain the advance north of Minsk, and that the 17 Mk near the border was free to move and the 20 Mk near Minsk was also freed up. The two Mech corps spread out across the roads heading East, serving as road blocks as well as converting road hexes back to Soviet control. The sole purpose of the Western Front is two restrict the German gains for turns 1-3 and to hold Minks until at least T4 as the Soviets suffer penalties of Minsk falls eariler than that.

[lojishen]

AGS, newly named Southern Front, T2:

I thought the 22 Mech at Lutsk would be in danger, but didn't expect to see them crushed on T2 like they were. Pretty much the whole formation was a write off, for somewhat limited gains. However, the 5th Cav Corp wasn't tied up, and the other front line border forces at least held the German hordes back some. That the 5h Cav Corp wasn't sacrificed was a real plus. Most Soviet units are internal support only, making shared defense somewhat difficult, and counter-attacks even more difficult. The 5th Cav Corp is on Force Support, meaning it can integrate with other Soviet armies providing extra defensive support, or extra offensive power with no penalties. I was loathe to riske the 5th Cav on T1 and happy to seem them able to retreat on T2. Again, after the disastrous first turn, I was somewhat pleased with T2 other than the collapse of the 22 Mech at Lutsk.

[lojishen]

AGN, now named Northern Front, T3:

Ahh, turn 3!! No longer will the Germans convert rail hexes at will. Now they will have to painfully rebuild each one. Plus, by now, they have either extended beyond those roadds they own on the early turns, or I have converted them back to Soviet control with misc units. At this point, I have received the northern Dvina reinforcements as well as those behind the Stalin Line south of the Pripet Marshes. At this point, new orders are in force.

Orders for Northern Front: delay with what units you can, and prepare new defensive lines at Narva on the Baltic Sea and Pskov along the approaches to Leningrad.

The North received a number of SZN reserve divsions this turn. The first decision I facesd was what to do with them. They arrived at less than half strength, with low supply and readiness. However, at 60% their proficiency was pretty decent for Soviet units. I determined that the previous forces would continue the delaying action, and I would try to withdraw the SZN divisions to a place where the could rest and refit. As I'm writing this some turns later, I still think this was the right decision, but I should have used more rail movement to get them to the rear as rail increases on T3 and greatly increases on T4.

Anyway, the plan was to leave some blocking forces in place, but start withdrawing the bulk of the units north to man new defensive lines ...

[lojishen]

Western Front, T3:

The Western Front saw the destruction of the 11th Army,but the main north/south resistence line of Minsk was still intact. The 13 Army started with one division west of Minsk and one to the east. It was decided to commit these two divisions to the defense of Minsk. That left the decision as to where the main defensive line should be. By T3, Soviet rail capacity was sufficient to rail some 6 infantry divisions, and by T4 this would be up to somewhere around 22. Was this sufficient capacity to form a defensive line at the Orsha Gap / Dnepr River lines or not??!! As the German invaders were still west of Minsk by T3 it was decided to make the Orsha Gap / Dnepr River line the main line of resistence ...

[lojishen]

Southern Front, T3:

The South saw the almost complete destruction of Soviet front line forces. That was the downside. The plus side was that this was the end of T3. Going forward, the Germans would have to earn each hex and railway, and in the south, that is a lot of hexes and railways. At the end of T2, I had decided to make a fairly stiff fight for the Stalin line in this sector. However, on T3 I decided the almost complete destruction of frontier forces on T2 albeit on the existing line was a sufficient sacrifice. In other words, the frontier forces had done their job, though at great cost. After T1, German advances had done great damage, but moved slowly. As such, I was ok with abandoning the Stalin line to weak forces and withdrawing the rest to Kiev and the Dnepr. Given the poor performance of the 22 Mech last turn, I was surprised at the lack of penetration on that axis this turn. Perhaps, they were to interested in baggin a weakened 22 Mech rather than moving forward.

In hindsight, the plight of the 12 Army HQ is interesting. At the end of this turn, they are stuck on the front line with Axis units threatening both flanks. ...

[lojishen]

Northern Front, T4:

Fortunately, not much to report on this front for T4, July 2nd. German forces move up to the Dvina, and effect crossing in several points. However, no crossing is beyond 20 km. The only bad news is the western bank of Riga falls in a hurry ...

[lojishen]

Western Front, T4:

For whatever reason, T4 was ok for us. The large concentration of German forces seen on T3 headed directly for Minsk. While Lepel to the north and Slutsk to the south were threatened on T3, significant forces did not pushem them back. On the downside, Minsk was definitely toast next turn. On the plus side, mechanized elements covered the Berezina crossings, and a significant number of divisions showed up on the Orsha/Dnepr fronts. At this point, I feel pretty good about the decision to hold the Orsha Gap / Dnepr line. But, only time will tell ...

[lojishen]

Southern Front, T4:

Not much to say here. Look at the last picutre and notice that almost all of the forces in front of the Stalin line are now gone. Was it worth it? I think so. The German advance is still well short of the Stalin line, and it will be a slower advance to Kiev at this point, not to mention more effort to convert broken rail lines.

[lojishen]

Southern Front, T2, post 2:

However, as the Germans advance on the Stalin line, the defenses of Kiev start to grow ...

[larryfulkerson]

Wonderful AAR dude, keep up the good work. One comment though....I'd really like to see the minimap of the advance in a movie form. Want me to make it for you? All I would need is the END_OF_TURN files. You can send 'em to larryfulkerson2002 (at ) yahoo (dot) com if you want to. I'll post the movie or just send it to you and you can post it if you want.

To bad we don't have any comments from the other side but I understand the need for operational security.

[Veers]

Good AAR, lojishen. This, an AAR involving a player's thoughts on the future, is my favourite style of AAR, as well.

Since you guys both mentioned that you like this style off AAR, and Larry mentioned he also wanted cmments from the other side, you both maybe interested int he dual AAR that Silvain and I are making over at Gamesquad with the Italian Campaign. In one thread we both post our comments and in a second, which Silvain has assured me he will not look into, I post my plans for the future.

[Veers]

ORIGINAL: Veers

Good AAR, lojishen. This, an AAR involving a player's thoughts on the future, is my favourite style of AAR, as well.

Since you guys both mentioned that you like this style off AAR, and Larry mentioned he also wanted cmments from the other side, you both maybe interested int he dual AAR that Silvain and I are making over at Gamesquad with the Italian Campaign. In one thread we both post our comments and in a second, which Silvain has assured me he will not look into, I post my plans for the future.

EDIT: Crap, this was supposed to be an edit of my above post...[:D]

[lojishen]

Thanks for the feedback, always encouraging.
 
Veers,
 
Thanks for the link. I read all of your previous AAR with Silvain, and look forward to the new one.
 
Larry,
 
I'll send you the saved files for the minimap in a day or two, and eventually, I'd like to learn how you do it.  Right now, I'm learning a new programming language at work, and as an old dog, my capacity for new tricks is used up for the time being.
 

[lojishen]

Northern Front T5:

Not much to report here for Turn 5. The frontline forces are obliterated, and not it is simply a race for the surviving units to get back tot he main line of resistence before the Germans can catch them. Some weak blocking forces are placed at the main cross roads in a feeble attempt to slow down the Axis juggernaught.

[lojishen]

Western Front T5:

Minsk falls, but other than that, no disasters on this front, and even Minsk was somewhat expected. No new armies added to the main line, yet. A couple were railed to the front, as were reinforcements for the other armies there. If you compare this picture with the last, you will notice that the Orsha Gap / Dnepr line has thickened a fair amount. The remnants of the two Mechanized corp were positioned along the Berezino to further slow down the advance. We'll see if it was worth it.

[lojishen]

Southern Front T5:

The Germans approach the Stalin line on T5, but failt to make any penetrations. I'd left the line defended by only fortress troops and light troops, withdrawing the rest to Kiev. On T4, the 17 Corp and elements of 16 Mech Corp were reorganizing on the border with Rumania. I really feared these units would be lost down there because of it, with little to gain. The 12th army HQ, frozen on T3, retreated to the protection of the 17 Corp on T4. On T5, they were all free to move. They couldn't get far as the Germans were right next to the main bridge to the north. However, a 12 army bridging unit was able to get them across the Dnestr. The 12 army HQ couldn't get far, but the 17 and 16 Mech Corp set up defensive positions along the southern portion of the Stalin line. Not much will escape, but their ability to get north should slow down the Germans some. The 12 Army HQ has been in serious danger now for weeks, and I've taken a personal interest in evacuating the unit to safety. The current position is still very exposed, and I fear for the lives of this brave HQ unit.