Trippin' the Trappen

[LiquidSky]

Opponent: Wallas aka. Soviet

Changes to game: Sevestopol gets 300 supply free per turn until axis controlled.
Hardcore Supply rules in effect.
Russians start at Strategic Position 4
FREE SETUP

As the forces of goodness and all things Schnappes, I array my professional army (only slightly dulled from mild winter Soviet offensive). A line of infantry follows the front, with the Panzers placed in reserve behind the front. The mission of the luftwaffe is to cut the flow of supplies into Kerch/Sevastopol so that my army of Rumanians (against Sevestopol) and Hungarians/Italians (against Kerch) can take it. If he chooses not to evacuate the Crimea (silly boy), I can rail a panzer korp down for the drive on Kerch.

The goal: Contain any misguided Soviet Offensives. Isolate Kerch with air. Take Kerch. Isolate Sevastopol. Take same.

[LiquidSky]

The first turn is in! I call this turn: Rock, Paper, Panzer. And it looks like:

[LiquidSky]

As my opponent is free to log in and see this information, I will usually be a turn or two out of date. My turn consists of the luftwaffe bombing Kerch, Sevastopol, and Taman, to wreck the ports. Some air-air combat occurs, where I lose about 35 fighters to down 70 fighters..not good odds. And a couple of bombers are lost to AA. The Italians and Hungarians move forward to the front line at Kerch. The Rumanians stare at the Sevastopol Fortress and cry.

The rest of my army enjoys a free vacation, with shuffleboard, football, and other games to amuse themselves.

[Keunert]

Great to see another aar, and great to see this map mod in action. i will try this the next time myself.
Are you both at the same experience level with this game?

Oh and if he's building Forts on Kerch you will find what not to do with them in my AAR.

[LiquidSky]

The Russians attack! Some incursions are made in the Kharkov area, including the loss of Balakleja (49,29). On my Turn 2, all holes are plugged with reserve motorized/panzer units, and some local counterattacks drive the Bolshies back. The 1st Panzer Army meanwhile starts Operation Frederick pushing over the river at the south eastern armpit of the salient.

Several new HQ's are ordered up at OKH, including one each of Italian, Hungarian, Romanian and German Army HQ's...with three German Korp HQ's as well...no leaders yet, cant afford the pp's. The left over pps buy a Staff card and a Truck card.

The Hungarian's launch an attack towards Kerch after korp artillery prep and a lot of bombing, but are brutally repulsed. Going to have to wait a couple more turns for the supply to run out, as I dont think the SS will be coming down to take Kerch. I may have a prestige problem to overcome if I fail to take either Sevastopol or Kerch.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 3: The Russians continue to pressure in the salient, however, they suffer massive command failures, so are unable to achieve much more then an arrow to the knee. The Russian navy shows up, and pushes my rowboats with panzerfausts out of the mouth of Sevastopol harbour.

Using my mobile reserves, I manage to plug all but one of the holes. The 1st Panzer Army crosses the river at the armpit and is now in position to make some rapid advances towards cutting off the whole 6th army (its bad luck to be named 6th army)


Losses are starting to pile up on both sides...30k infantry loss for the Russians vrs 17k infantry loss for the Germans.





My opponent and I have played many, many wargames together, and would modestly rank ourselves somewhere around Manstien or maybe even Mars, the god of war [:'(]

This is also our fourth attempt at a campaign. The first one (Case Blue) we gave up for the patch. The next one (trappenjagd) was loss because we realized the russians were going to get dismissed too easily. After some changes, (I added Izium to the list of cities before the Russians can go defensive) we started again. Again, the russians face dismissal and are unable to get out with Ambition, as his fails to take an objective same turn as he plays it. (gains 1 prestige, then loses some).
We restart again...this time I make ambition cheap (2 points), and reduce the odds of getting a minor report from 25% to 10%. We make it to June 27th, but game ends when the Russians cannot afford ambition any more, and are dismissed (still at Strategic Position 5).

This game, I remove Izium from the list. (so they cant drop anymore in position until one of the usual 5 cities are taken). However, I start the Russians at position 4, meaning if they get any minor objectives, they will be defensive. Should stop early russian dismissal...but could cause a large amount of russian prestige.

Also, in the previous Trappenjagd games, my opponent decided to save his army, and ran back slowly, giving up terrain to save units. This game he is standing and fighting.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 4: Rain, rain, rain. Puts a stop to most offensive actions. Just a little hole plugging on my part, and not much on his.

Turn 5: May 20th, 1942. The battle for Kerch has begun! The 3rd Panzer crushes the defenders on the rail-line, sending them back a hex. The italians attack the north hex, and the hungarians attack the south hex, both succeeding. My bombing campaign of his ports must be working...as I took less casualties that time then a few turns ago. After a speed card on the panzers..they push forward another hex, and exploit a hex.

[LiquidSky]

The Russians are still attacking west, and have shown no signs of withdrawing. I attack north with my Panzers taking two more hexes. I am biding my time until some reinforcements from other fronts arrive to help hold the flanks.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 6: The russians evacuate troops from the Kerch peninsula coast, and the hungarian/italian army crush the remaining soviets on the front line. The constant pressure on his supply lines has finally paid off...the panzer division drives down the road towards Kerch.

[LiquidSky]

The Russians seem to be pulling back in the salient, no more attacks and some units retreat. I attack ruthelessly along the railline to Izium taking two more hexes...and push in a bit, tightening the front.






Losses are getting heavier..and I forgot to take a screenshot of it, but the russians lost around 50k infantry, to my 30k (total). I will try and give a better look at losses next turn. So far I have lost the 60th Mot tank battalion, a security regiment, and an artillery regiment for a German infantry division.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 7: Its the Romanians turn! After a few turns of bombarding by air and artillery (rotating 4 guns out of 12 to give them time to recharge), I attack the northern most hex of the Sevastopol bridgehead. And success! By now, they must be on half supply (because of my special event gives them that much, if the port is completely blocked). The hungarians surge forward to Kerch, in a race to beat the Italians. The German 3rd Panzer Div rails out to help out in Operation Frederick.





I know the extra supply event I have is working because by this time, Sevastopol would normally be completely out of supply, and a troop of girl guides armed with magic markers would be able to take it.

[LiquidSky]

The Kharkov Salient retreats back some more, my 1st SS Mot fails to retake the forest hex on the rail line to Izium, however on the other side, the Wiking and 22nd Panzer manage to push a new hole moving north. My new reinforcing infantry divisions both get put on at Slajansk and immediately move north to help hold the line against the retreating Soviets.






*sigh* I forget again to check the losses on the stats graph. Oh well..maybe next time.

[Iñaki Harrizabalagatar]

Seems difficult to bag the Russians in the Kharkov pocket

[LiquidSky]

It is...but then I am playing a human all too aware of having his neck stuck out, and we used free setup, allowing him to strengthen his flanks. Of course, it also allowed me to put 2 SS mot, and 2 panzer divs on the southern salient. As well, almost my entire airforce is down in the Crimea interdicting supply to Kerch/Sevastopol.

[Keunert]

Did you try to bomb the bridges? it will make it difficult for his armor to retreat fast enough.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky

I start the Russians at position 4, meaning if they get any minor objectives, they will be defensive. Should stop early russian dismissal...but could cause a large amount of russian prestige.

So far I have only gotten two minor hold orders for 6 prestige which have yet to be completed

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: Keunert

Did you try to bomb the bridges? it will make it difficult for his armor to retreat fast enough.

I have planned for that with all my command points saved, and if necessary I would play the movement cards for more AP

[Keunert]

having a rested engineer unit besides the bridge will be able to build a new bridge in one turn.
well maybe Liquid can save his divebombers for more important work [:)]

[LiquidSky]

At the moment, they are busy interdicting supply to Kerch/Sevastopol and bombing russians in the Crimea to help my Axis Minors. I am trying to refrain from bombing the Black Sea fleet, as their AA would kill too many of my bombers.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 8: May 26, 1942.

The minor axis move up to the units at Kerch...and the Hungarians take the hex just south of Kerch. Within the city are transports of the Black Sea fleet, so no doubt the russian is planning an evacuation.

More interestingly, the Russians continue to pull back painfully slowly from the Kharkov salient as the vodka drunken 'soldiers' stagger about aimlessly. Trying to take advantage of the confusion, I launch several attacks....a few of which are repulsed when I discover they are not quite as drunk as they appear. However, I do manage to break through in the north part of the salient, but am unable to exploit due to lack of infantry in reserve.

In the south part of the salient, my panzer army pushes up another hex, this time in fairly good order. A lack of command points prevents any further pushing.