Fabio's Eastern Front- a case of the blues?

[SMK-at-work]

Picture the scene along the lower Don River at the end of May 1942 - the mighty Nazi blitzkreig has been fought to a halt along 2000km of Russian front. The Caucasus front has defeated a major Nazi drive to encircle Rostov in February, destroying 2 Panzer Korps and Hitlers own bodyguard regiment.

Now the troops are mostly resting - some reserve units are set as "tripwires" in case the Nazis foolishly try anything. Stalingrad is garrisoned by 2 armies of the front plus local units, and everywhere else the mighty soviet army is gearing up for the Autumn offensive......

Carlos and I are playing v2 of Fabio's Eastern Front, and this is a "history" of Case Blue as it played out for 2-3 months or more of game time, from the end of May 1942 onwards.....starting T50 - we are now at T70, the story goes on..

We'll be posting alternate accounts and maps of each turn giving a "blow by blow" account over the next few days or weeks, as our timetables allow us.

So - herewith the Soviet dispositions showing the path of the ill fated February offensive...since then all has been quiet....

[shunwick]

Ooo.. looking forward to this. [:)]

Best wishes,
Steve

[governato]

Glad you guys are playing the scenario! A repeat of the historical campaign will be an excellent test of the scenario past 1941. The hope is that the scenario leads to fluid maneuvers after a semi static Spring, as it did historically.

Btw, SMK-Mike and I are slugging it out as well, I am the Axis and currently working on turn 100 (May 1943 and realizing how very foolish it 'd be to start Operation Zitadelle).

[sealclubber]

The Red Army "steamroller" is a lot of fun to play. Not nearly as elegant as razor sharp Wehrmacht encirclement operations, but disintegrating an entire German army group with the application of blunt force never really gets old.

[SMK-at-work]

Carlos is having trouble posting pictures here, so for the time being I'll post his pics and he'll then write to them.

So here's his onslaught waiting for the word to go:

[captain10]

Case blue. The German point of view

It seems I'm not allowed to post images at the forum. I had the message "You are not allowed to post links for 7 days from the date of your tenth post" when I tried to do it.[&:]Thank you, Mike, for post my image. [:)]

After the failure trying to take Rostov in February, the German forces will try to attack towards Stalingrad in June 1942. Panzergruppen 4, the 6th Army, and Panzergruppen 1 will cross de Don River at three different points. The idea is to get close to Stalingrad and try to take it as soon as possible. That task is for the 6 th Army. In the left flank, Panzergruppen 4 will take the road north of the city. In the right flank, Panzergruppen 1 will press to help 6th Army and then will try to advance towards the Caucasus.

[SMK-at-work]

Here's Carlos's next pic - the Axis bursts the banks of the Don....

[governato]

SMK lines were thin...were you expecting a strike against Moscow and kept all reserves there?

[SMK-at-work]

Be patient young Padwan.....and where's my turn??

[captain10]

Turn 51

The Soviet defenses in the South Area seem to be weak enough to let the German panzers to advance easily in this turn. Parzergruppen 4 takes the road north of Stalingrad and aims north towards the Soviet position in Voronezh. Panzergruppen 1 doesn'd find strong soviet forces and the Sith Army takes positions to attack Stalingrad taking Kalach and to hexes West and South of the city.

Where are the Soviet reserves? I hope I have surprised my opponent, who was attacking the last turns in the North and Center Areas, and maybe he will not have enough reserves or will get to Stalingrad too late to stop my troops.

[Telumar]

Ain't these reserve units meant to be disbanded into the replacement pool?

[SMK-at-work]

Yeah.... if you have enough units in the first place!

[SMK-at-work]

Yes Carlos certainly did surprise me with this - after the destruction of 2 Pz Korps and general mayhem elsewhere I thought he'd be resting his armour for somewhere else.....so he go a couple of easy turns in.

However the storm was approaching from the north.....units waiting in reserve on other fronts were hurriedly entrained, and since there was a major offensive happening around Voronezh many of those units were immediately available.

From the south a couple of armies held in reserve behind Rostov were also immediately available, as well as more rebuilt parachute units.

And of course brave Soviet paratroopers wee active cutting supply lines....

[SMK-at-work]

Here's Carlos's next pic with his comments

[SMK-at-work]

A serious shock to find Stalingrad fallen so quickly, however the counter attack started in the north, with the advance units of the Fascist troops dealt to quickly, and the possible link with the Voronezh front cut.

Paratroopers continue to harass axis supply lines, and detachments are made from the forces around Rostov to shore up the Caucasus defenses.

The east bank of the Volga at Stalingrad is not well defended and I am worried about the enemy reaching the reinforcement hexes there, but here are only so many troops available right now. More reinforcements rail to the assembly points at Saratov and the rail junction between there and Voronezh.

[SMK-at-work]

Carlos's next turn and comments

[SMK-at-work]

As Carlos has noted, the counter attack from the north was a bit more than his troops could handle.

Again paratroopers kept the supply lines across the Don precarious, while east of Rostov a cheeky attack threatened the main rail line to Stalingrad and the Southwest Front counterattack pushed towards the crossing point south of Stalingrad.

At this point I wasn't too worried about the long term prospects - most of the Axis units were "in the red" as Carlos has noted, and it looked like the large Russian armies should do a lot of damage to them.

[SMK-at-work]

Carlos's T54:

[SMK-at-work]

And my end of Turn 54 - I was pretty happy at this point - the Northern attack had been roundly defeated, and although Stalingrad was lost the Axis had taken a lot of casualties getting this far.

It looks like I'd be able to relieve the Stalingrad pocket if it didn't fall next turn.

Another para division made a successful drop (several had evaporated in transit over the turns!!) right on top of a railway construction unit, interrupting their work and supply to the Axis units.

Another of the new Tank armies had arrived (top right of map) although it would be a few moves before it was anything like fit for battle.

[governato]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work


It looks like I'd be able to relieve the Stalingrad pocket if it didn't fall next turn.

I think the lesson learned here is to use the Panzer Armies together, in order to make pockets and close them fast.
Sending the panzers in almost opposite directions, and across a major river meant taking a huge risk. Also I think Carlos had to choose between air support (bad for paratroopers!) and combat support, as there are not many airbases in that area (by design, to simulate the strained logistics in that area). Still, losing Stalingrad means a lot less replacements for the Red Army.

SMK, historically you should have about 90-100k rifle squads at that point, how many do you have?