Stalingrad to Berlin (No Hfarrish)

[smokindave34]

Hfarrish and I have decided to try out the "Stalingrad to Berlin" campaign. I'll be commanding the axis. We have the following house rules:

1) No bombing of HQ unless stacked with a combat unit
2) Use of air refueling will only be with transports

I have no idea how this campaign will work out but I'm a bit tired of the '41 grand campaign so here goes.......

Here is the starting OOB. Both armies are much smaller than I have seen in grand campaigns I have played. The Wehrmacht is pretty well burnt out at this point with low TOE and low morale for the majority of my units (more on that in a moment).

[smokindave34]

My panzers are in poor shape. Low morale (Pelton won't be happy) and low TOE. It's going to take some time to get them back in shape for my drive on Moscow [:)] Even the GrossDuetchsland has low morale - 71!

[governato]

Excited about this one!

[smokindave34]

Someone at OKH should be shot for the sloppy job of organizing the Wehrmacht. A large portion of my Armies are overloaded with some at almost 2X the limit. The length of my front lines has a forced a lot of divisions to be broken down into regiments which is compounding the HQ loading.

[smokindave34]

AGN:

Hfarrish had the first move. It appears a large portion of his units were frozen because all the action was (of course) at Stalingrad. Here I pull back the 28th corps from Posadnikovo. I'm going to try and free up units along the front to send to the disaster that is occurring at Stalingrad.

The 16th army starts to pull back from Demyansk. Same goal here - shorten the front to allow forces to move south.

[smokindave34]

AGC:

I'd like to hold this bulge near Rzhev as long as possible and keep Hfarrish as far from Berlin as I can. Depending on how things progress at Stalingrad I may need to steal units from AGC. In anticipation of that I pull some of my mobile forces back to refit and dig in case I need to shorten the line. Hraffish has a few stong mechanized and rifle corps here so I expect a fight when they become un-frozen.

[smokindave34]

Army Group B

The 29th motorized division breaks the Stalingrad kessel....for now. I expect the pocket to close tight next turn as I have almost no units in the area to mount a counterattack.

The XXXXVIII Panzer corps, III panzer corps, and LII corps are railed in to prepare to attempt to break the pocket.

Next turn I expect the Italians and Hungarians north of Stalingrad to take a beating.

Von Manstein arrives with Army Group Don to take charge of this part of the front however I used most of my AP's to get good leaders and artillery/pioneers transferred to my panzer corps I just railed in.

[smokindave34]

Army Group A

The 17th army pulls back just a bit to shorten my lines here. I plan on fighting hard with the 17th army to try and tie up Soviet forces in this area (and prevent their transfer to Stalingrad or Moscow).

The 1st panzer army is sent north to relieve the 6th army. The oil fields of Baku will have to wait.........

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: governato

Excited about this one!

Me too. I'm tired of looking at 1941 AAR's over and over again. I am a little nervous about how banged up the Wehrmacht is though - hopefully the Red army is just as bruised and battered.

[Disgruntled Veteran]

Good deal! I wanted to take you up on this game but 1 is all I can do for the time. Nonetheless, I will watch this one.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

It makes a lot more sense to play the scenarios then to play a GC from beginning to end. In the GC everything gets out of balance very quickly. I will definitely follow this AAR. I also like the house rule regarding fuel.

[juret]

fun, good luck

I am also tired of 41 gc where everyone complains about game balance.

U got one hell of challange to save the stalingrad units.

[loki100]

great to see this, good luck to both of you

[swkuh]

Its a great game vs. AI. Appreciate your strategy, tactics and explanations. Will be watching this AAR.

[smokindave34]

Well it seems as there is a lot of interest in this scenario - hopefully I can make it interesting!

Turn 2:

The only action was in the Stalingrad area of the front. I'm not sure if Hfarrish still has his units frozen or he has just chosen not to attack in other areas of the front. If I was him I'd be pounding away anywhere I had the chance. My lines are paper thin and any significant pressure will force me to withdraw.

The 6th army is doomed. I thought long and hard about sending in the XXXXVIII Pz corps and III Pz corps to attempt a relief but decided against it. I didn't have the MP's (especially with blizzard conditions) or the strength to make it through to Von Paules this turn and strong Soviet forces began battering the Italians north of Stalingrad and would have threatned my flanks. I'd be interested to hear if any axis players have been succesfull in relieving the 6th army in this scenario......

My plans now are to have Army Group Don stablize the front and use my mobile forces to punish any Soviet units pushed far ahead of their rail lines. I was able to rout the 18th tank corps this turn and should be in a position next turn to launch more attacks and hopefully build up the morale of some of my panzer units.

[governato]

Are you using the airfields in the pocket for emergency supply as in 20.2.1? That will help a lot to keep 6th Army fighting.
The trick is to keep the 'Air supply range' small so that you can provide the minimum 5% of supply with airdrops.

Units in beachhead/Air head supply will not suffer more than a 33% reduction in CV due to supply shortages (used to be it could be up to a 75% reduction in CV).

[loki100]

does seem as if the Soviets are a lot stronger in this scenario than in the 'Red Army Resurgent' short game.

On that basis, think you are probably right to leave 6th Army to its fate and try to enable them to tie down as much of the Soviet southern thrust as you can

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: governato

Are you using the airfields in the pocket for emergency supply as in 20.2.1? That will help a lot to keep 6th Army fighting.
The trick is to keep the 'Air supply range' small so that you can provide the minimum 5% of supply with airdrops.

Units in beachhead/Air head supply will not suffer more than a 33% reduction in CV due to supply shortages (used to be it could be up to a 75% reduction in CV).

Thanks Governato - I have, although this turn my airfields were displaced out of the Kessel. One thing that is different here is that my units don't officially "surrender" but are depleted and end up back in Germany with the same chain of command. I'm not sure that is a significant difference just something that does not happen in the campaign.

[smokindave34]

Turn 3:

The 1st Guards and 5th Tank armies continue to beat up on the Italians. Hfarrish is moving west about 4 hexes per turn. I moved the 1st Panzer Army to this area and re-organized some of my better infantry units in the XXIX corps and loaded it up with arty and pioneers. Next turn I'll put a solid leader in charge (I didn't have enough AP's this turn).

[smokindave34]

Turn 3 continued.....

My mobile units are now at about 70-80% TOE so I move them forward to start attacking next turn. The Soviet tank and mechanized corps should be fairly easy to handle out in the open and away from their supply lines. The cavalry and guards rifle corps will be a bit more challenging........

I have a motorized division refitting in Stalino and an infantry and panzer division en route that arrived as reinforcements last turn. These forces along with the 1st Panzer army will have to hold the line. I really have no one else to free up unless I pull back to Kerch and send the 17th army north however I want to fight east as long as possible as that is my biggest advantage in this game.