Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Great AAR Emir - and I absolutely love the graphics!

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ORIGINAL: gids

thats a pitty tbh ,there should be a house rule not giving up ;)....but super AAR  as a showcase for the game tbh

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ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
I'm a bit surprised that Emir chose the long right hook for Leningrad, this isn't the most efficient way to take the place imo. All you need to do is march straight to the Neva, belly up to the bar, and cross it. You can take out Leningrad far quicker this way. OTOH, doing it this way does open up the possibility of post November pockets.

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ORIGINAL: wmcalpine

Emir,

Nice catch at Kharkov. Will you post updates to those nice spreadsheets? Those are great for a numbers freak like me.

Bill

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ORIGINAL: Emir Agic

I would like to make some additional comments. CF have right in many points in his post here but every game is unique and we need to know some specifics about it. From my perspective:


1. I think biggest mistake CF made is to abandon Kiev and Dnepr line so early (turn 6-7). I am very sure that I would had much more trouble if he decided to keep that line. By abandoning Kiev he gave me a free gift in a form of freely passing Dnepr. I moved XXXVI PzC toward Chernigov in order to make him think I would flank that line from a north. I hope that this is what caused him to cede Kiev. However, XXXVI PzC was in a really bad supply situation to do anything there. Beside that it was weakened by transferring of one Pz Div. to another Corps. Once I crossed Dnepr he didn't had much chance in South as most of his Army in that sector were in the open terrain without good fortifications.

Last game I played I lost 50 divisions by sticking to the Dnepr as AGC closed a pocket from the north but you are right, I should have pulled back a turn later

2. He made same mistake, but on a smaller scale, around Velkie Luki. He gave me that strategic city without shot fired. That speeded up my operations and I avoided fighting in those swamps around city.
Everything was thrown on the landbridge as that is the easiest and the most sensible place to bypass the Dnepr.. in hindsight I should have checkerboarded a bit there but you are the first I see to pass north of the landbridge.. You see what happened after I stuck to the Dnepr (pocket)

3. He delayed me a lot by reopening pockets. That was very frustrating. You have timed schedule for every turn and then you realize you will have to postpone it for a week because one cavalry unit was able to made contact with units trapped inside pocket. Then, on the next turn you find out that pocket was again opened. Frustrating. Also I was caught off guard by his counterattacking abilities. Counterattacking and those damn cavalry divisions were my worst nightmare.
I'll do as Flavius advises, sacrificial screen and retreat..

Drawback of this tactics was that my railhead was every turn closest to a units which were maintained pocket and often counterattacking units were also pocketed as a result of their actions.
Yes

4. CF has gave me a lot of territory for free. After Smolensk whole front moved three-four hexes per turns toward east without fighting. I wasn't able to do anything with Panzers as they were often on a edge of being 50 MPs from railhead. That caused armored and motorized divisions to arrive in front of Moscow and Kharkov almost intact. I'm wondering what would happen if I had to fight for Kiev, V. Luki, Vjazma, Gomel, Chernigov etc. Maybe the same or maybe not.
They moved back as I had everything on the belt, no line behind Smolensk.. A mistake. No 3 fort belt 1 deep belt can stop if you can concentrate force (which you did, good play!)

5. By opening pockets and avoiding fighting after Smolensk, CF managed to make formidable defensive line in front of Moscow. That is where I strongly disagree with him. It took me a lot of forces and time, including PzC from AGN, to dislodge only northern part of that line. And mostly by outflanking it from a north. Not entirely accurate, you penetrated the belt across a minor river in the south as well.. see attachementThose level 3 forts with two refitted rifle divisions are very nasty. As German don't attack such hex without a lot of artillery and pioneers and at least three strong divisions and excellent infantry commander. Even then is a difficult to make a breach.

If you take a look at my last screenshot you may see salient toward Moscow. In order to make that salient I needed almost complete 4th Army, fully refitted PzC ad three turns. Yet, it seems that salient leads nowhere. Even now, I'm not sure that I would be able to take Moscow without costly battles which would wear off my forces significantly. Especially I wouldn't be able to make pockets like those in South.
Yes, you needed strong forces but breached through very fast IMO.. It is the same as around Leningrad. No fort (except perhaps a level 4 in heavy Urban) can stop the Germans. Soviets need to count on delaying tactics, not linear stop lines..

I was about to withdraw the remaining fort units as they were about to be outflanked and destroyed..

6. It is true that 60 movement points from the rail grid the german infantry does not lose much combat power. But it is also true that there were a little contact with enemy forces in such situations because Soviets were withdrawing most of the time.
Up North the soviets were in contact with the spearheads continously.. Soviets take more attrition then the axis (experience) and the moment you cut that rail line (tactical error by me, should have extended the line but no units to do so...) I was screwed and should have pulled out..

7. And a final note to other players who are playing as Axis. During this game I tried to conserve forces especially mobile divisions. That means no raiding against cites or chasing industry. That also mean to avoid attacking all over front. Attack only when it is necessary and when you are pretty much sure that you can win battle. If you see heavily fortified line (level 3 forts) it is probably best to completely bypass it if possible. Otherwise, try to find weak spot (level 1-2 fort or level 3 fort with a single unit) and be sure to have preferably entire corps in reserve if first attack fails.
You did well

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ORIGINAL: Emir Agic

5. By opening pockets and avoiding fighting after Smolensk, CF managed to make formidable defensive line in front of Moscow. That is where I strongly disagree with him. It took me a lot of forces and time, including PzC from AGN, to dislodge only northern part of that line. And mostly by outflanking it from a north.

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ORIGINAL: Cannonfodder

Not entirely accurate, you penetrated the belt across a minor river in the south as well.. see attachement

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ORIGINAL: Emir Agic

At this moment (turn 15) my opponent decided to surrender game.

He told me that he had only 8 rifle divisions not encircled between Rostov and Orel. He also expect me to trap NW and Leningrad fronts. This means he will lost many units during November (those won't be coming back after turn 18). That will also result in non existent blizzard offensive and need to spend all AP for a good time on building rifle divisions.

Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE