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Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 2:04:24 PM

dmixer

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Mid January, German Sudden Death Major Victory with the capture of Stalingrad and Baku.

The ruskies were starting to pile up and push hard in the east, but they lost heart and surrendered when Baku fell to a desperate German push south.

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< Message edited by dmixer -- 8/21/2012 2:14:38 PM >

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 2:07:46 PM

dmixer

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German casualties were heavy at first, but then I got the hang of the encircle and destroy attack.

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< Message edited by dmixer -- 8/21/2012 2:14:29 PM >

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 2:34:50 PM

dmixer

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The Germans ground out a lot of casualties the first month beating their helmets against the Russian line with it's seemingly never ending reinforcements, many a German soldier was lost as the Russian lines closed back around German attacks.

The line at Rostov proved too tough a nut to crack, and in fact was only broken when the German forces finally achieved a breakthrough in the middle of the battle lines and swept south to encircle and cut off the Rostov defenders. LOTS, and I mean, LOTS of brave German soldiers died in those hexes east of Taganrog.

Once the chase was on, unit and HQ cohesion just fell apart. It was attack, attack, attack, with units racing forward where ever a hole appeared in the Russian line. By the end, HQs were scattered to the winds with units ALL over the map. (A fact that I'm not proud of, as it seems like poor generalmanship.. err.. generaling... well, you get the point)

The Russians had recovered and had stopped their retreat about mid December. New troops were pouring in and while the Germans were able to put up an aggressive defense, by the end of December the Russian hoard was too strong and the Germans were falling back. They maintained good order in the line, and occasionally were able to cut off and destroy Russian probing attacks, but the jig was up.

Just as the Russian counter attack slammed into the German line, Baku fell to a 'hail mary' German attack made up of scrapped together forces.

The Russians surrendered and General Mixer retired to life of victory parades and endorsement deals.

< Message edited by dmixer -- 8/21/2012 3:11:50 PM >

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 5:11:37 PM

Grotius

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Congrats! Sounds like an exciting game. Would love to see more screenshots if you get the time. :)

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 6:56:33 PM

Keunert

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congratulation! lots of drama.
it looks like german losses were high from
the beginning. my guess was that the casualty rate should be
somewhere to 4:1 in favour of the Axis. you achieved something
between 2:1 or 3:1. i wonder why the losses are so high and why
you still managed to push them that far east?

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 10:14:12 PM

dmixer

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Early on the German casualties came from repeated attacks. To crack the Russian line I gave up on finesse and just hammered on spots till they finally broke.

I had a HUGE number of "Defender Holds" results, even after air and arty softening. The middle of the game most of the German loses came as a result of overreaching German divisions being caught and cut off.

Below is a pic that gives you a good idea of how chaotic it got when I finally broke the Russian line.

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< Message edited by dmixer -- 8/21/2012 10:15:54 PM >

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 10:18:37 PM

dmixer

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There were a lot of German soldiers buried around Rostov. I never really did break the line here.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 10:23:21 PM

dmixer

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The only way I captured Rostow was to sweep all the way around from up north and cut it off. Those hills and forests north of this pic are a bear to claw your way through.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 10:33:34 PM

dmixer

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After that it was off to the races! Once it was clear I was into the Russian rear guard, I just put put it in overdrive. Whenever I hit a group of defenders, I just swarmed around them. This is when unit cohesion just fell apart. There was no time to keep things neat, it was a race to cut off the fleeing Russians.

I finally ran into the Siberian reinforcements and danced with them until the Russian unit count started to get too high. When it became clear that my tired, over reaching troops were now up against a wall of Russians that weren't going anywhere but West, I scraped together a force and made a run for Baku.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/21/2012 10:39:41 PM

dmixer

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I started this scenario as the Russians, and the computer lead Germans punched through my line in several spots right off the bat. In a couple spots, as the Germans I attacked the same hex several times with high casualties before I could dislodge the defenders. The computer did it first try, with less air support then I gave.

I'm guessing the computer gets some bonuses that don't 'show up', as he seems to be having a much easier time forcing my line then I did in his place.

I almost gave up and started over, as the Russian line just wasn't budging and my honored dead were starting to pile up, but I finally was able to punch through in two key areas, and I knew it was all or nothing at that point, thus the scattered and racing German units.

I'm really looking forward to playing this game PBEM, but I'm having tech difficulties, and Vic is currently working on it. (I hope!)

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/22/2012 3:25:04 AM

Grotius

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Dmixer, were you playing the "Normal" AI? It does indeed get combat and movement bonuses. Only the "Easy" AI gets no bonuses. Forgive me if I'm telling something you already know.

Also, I find arty helps more than air support when I'm attacking. The AI is good about prepping attacks with both arty and air bombardments.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/22/2012 12:26:21 PM

dmixer

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Yah, Normal AI. The AI in this game is very aggressive and smart about breakthroughs.

It's style of play is very similar to mine, (aggressive that is, not smart

), and it was rewarding to finally put it on the defensive.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/22/2012 10:45:41 PM

bwheatley

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Well done! More details on your hail mary?

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/23/2012 2:02:18 AM

Grotius

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Ah, so if you're playing against Normal AI, that might explain why it seems to have better success on the offensive than you: it's getting some combat bonuses.

And yeah, would love to hear more about the "Hail Mary". :)

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/23/2012 1:09:48 PM

dmixer

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Heh, ok. Well, I ran into the Russian winter reinforcements and got chopped up. I had to stop my head long rush to the east and form up my lines. I kept trying to go on the attack, but it would always be the same:

I would punch through, cut off and kill a couple stacks of enemy troops, then have my flanks get rolled up by hoards of new Sovs, forcing me to fall back and reform lines. This happened for about a couple of weeks, when it slowly dawned on me that I was slowly being forced back, and my retreat was starting to pick up momentum.

Two things then occurred to me. One, when I then started paying attention to the southern areas and realized that once I took Astrachan in the SE, not much else was happening down there. Two, as I was rumbling down the road SE of Novorossisk that whenever I hit a group of Russian defenders, they would just collapse immediately. I pulled what troops I had together in the SE and started south, counting on the fact that the southern Russian troops seem to have no idea what was happening up north and were in no mood for fighting.

The Russian 'line' stiffened somewhat near Baku, but by throwing a unit as a wedge, knowing that it would get cut off but then be reconnected then next turn when I attacked from another angle, I was able force the defenders off the peninsula and open up Baku.

I call this the 'hail mary' play because I was seriously over extended up north. My mad rush east had captured a lot of ground, but my troops were scattered and exhausted. The Russian counter attack caught me by surprise, and I was too aggressive early against it.

At the rate I was having to retreat to keep from being outflanked, I would have lost Stalingrad probably late March. After 3 months of reckless adventuring, Baku was my only hope of salvaging a win.

Below you can see the start of Operation: Hail Mary.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/23/2012 1:27:41 PM

dmixer

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Below you can see the start of the end of my offensive actions in the east. This was my last big push and it nearly resulted in disaster.

I had to throw away some axis allies to save the German armor. (Really, though, what else are you going to do with those Hungarians?) My recon units were really dropping the ball at this point, as stacks of Russian armor would pop up out of thin air at my flanks with no warning.

This is the start of Operation: Brave Brave Sir Robin

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/24/2012 3:01:36 AM

bwheatley

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More more! :)

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/24/2012 11:27:14 PM

Grotius

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Which scenario was this -- the "long" Case Blue scenario? I'm curious whether I'm playing the same one. I don't see anything about an auto-win in the victory-conditions summary screen, but the manual does say you get an auto-win for taking Stalingrad and Baku at the same time in some scenarios. Did your in-game victory screen mention the possibility of winning by taking Stalingrad and Baku?

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/25/2012 1:48:06 AM

Enigma6584

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Really enjoying this.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/25/2012 2:19:46 PM

oldspec4

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Grotius

Which scenario was this -- the "long" Case Blue scenario? I'm curious whether I'm playing the same one. I don't see anything about an auto-win in the victory-conditions summary screen, but the manual does say you get an auto-win for taking Stalingrad and Baku at the same time in some scenarios. Did your in-game victory screen mention the possibility of winning by taking Stalingrad and Baku?

I just won an auto victory as Germans in the long scenario. The auto victory was a sudden death based on occupying Saratov and Uralsk. I was surprised when the screen showed the victory not knowing this was an auto win condition.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/25/2012 6:15:33 PM

Grotius

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Grats! And thanks for answering my question. I guess the "victory" section of the Reports doesn't remind us of the possibility of an auto-win.

Does the game let you continue, to see how many VPs you hold by April?

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/25/2012 6:30:48 PM

oldspec4

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Yes..I believe the game will let me continue but I'm stopping at this point to play from the Russian side.

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RE: Case Blue (long) GERMAN Major Victory! - 8/25/2012 11:53:10 PM

dmixer

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Yes, you can keep playing... but as my line was starting to buckle, I think I will just take my 'winner' ribbon and go home.

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