Aditia vs. Darbymcd

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Gary Grigsby's War in the East Series >> After Action Reports >> Aditia vs. Darbymcd

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Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 6:59:32 PM

Aditia

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2nd attempt at this after my previous game suffered an early end.

Important Edit, rules:
- Bitter End scenario
- Mild Blizzard
- No 1:1=2:1
- Non-Random Weather
- HQ Bombing allowed
- Pelton's limited naval assault rule, but with that I commit to having at least 2 bomber groups in the Crimean. We didn't specify nationality, but I will make it German ones.
- Oh I forgot: We have also agreed to tactical para drops being allowed

The objective of the AAR is:
- Collect feedback
- Provide insights as I get them, this is only my 2nd GC 41-45 and the previous one ended on T7. Hopefully this provides some useful reading to other newer Grand Campaigners.
- Hopefully entertain a bit :)

Feel free to give your feedback as you see it, no need to mince your words.
I do however respectfully ask that you refrain from any derogatory remarks on my opponent. He was a bit rusty and made some crucial early mistakes; he is now trying to deal with the consequences of those.

Darbymcd has turn 12 while I write this.

< Message edited by Aditia -- 8/11/2016 9:23:44 PM >

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 7:00:34 PM

Aditia

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AGN

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 7:01:04 PM

Aditia

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AGC

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 7:03:07 PM

Aditia

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AGS

I learned from my previous game to adjust my openings to make for a more secure northern and southern opening, including making the Kovel pocket tight.

I don't care about the Lvov pocket being tight or not it needs to be held for a long time anyway.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 7:05:41 PM

Aditia

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Airlosses:

Automated bombing routine, starting furthest out to hit level bombers and then switch to the closeby bases and move outwards.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 7:08:37 PM

Aditia

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I have no pictures of Turn 2, but I made some of the start of Turn 3

Start of AGN. Notice the Mot. Div from AGC that I moved north to pressure the woods north of Vitebsk

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd - 7/31/2016 7:11:55 PM

Aditia

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AGCnorth start. Southern part of AGC is not interesting.

His forces look randomly spread. On turn 2 I moved panzers in position to flank Vitebsk

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn3 - 7/31/2016 7:14:40 PM

Aditia

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AGS start

On his turn 1, Darbymcd underestimated how far I could get on turn 2 and allowed me to pocket a large number of units by being too far forward. He responded by cutting off a good chunk of my mobile forces, but the damage is done.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn3 - 7/31/2016 7:20:41 PM

Aditia

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AGN not too interesting, river crossings south of Pskov.

It took me until turn 8 or 9 to figure out how to properly do air supply drops, so that has diminished some forward movement in the early turns.

See AGC after my moves below. Note how I turn one of AGNs field armies towards the wood/marsh lands North of Vitebsk. I like to do this when the land bridge is firmly defended as this forces the Soviet player to make some choices.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn3 - 7/31/2016 7:24:18 PM

Aditia

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The big events are in the Ukraine.

Pockets reduced and secured and 2 more pockets made. I actually like that my opponent is maintaining his forward defence; it ensures the small disaster on turn 2 was not in vain and it also ensures that it will take my infantry considerable time to reach the Dnepr.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn4 - 7/31/2016 7:34:08 PM

Aditia

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Turn 4

Main event is that my opponent did not really respond to my weight of force north of Vitebsk and I find V-Luki unguarded.
This has serious implications as capturing V-Luki this early denies use of the Valdai Hills and provides an excellent spring board for the assault on Moscow.

In the North I outflank the Pskov defences and recon shows very light forces defending the Luga.

AGN

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn4 - 7/31/2016 7:39:23 PM

Aditia

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V-Luki area,

Vitebsk and the forces there are now isolated. The one PzCorps in the back belonging to Guderian's panzer group did an HQBU to outflank his defences on the Dnepr next turn. It was probing the Berezina previous turn but recon shows the route to Gomel too strongly held for a PzCorps.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn4 - 7/31/2016 7:41:16 PM

Aditia

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AGC

Infantry advances on Gomel while I make sure there can be no surprises from the Pripyat.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn4 - 7/31/2016 7:44:38 PM

Aditia

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AGS

A lot of Red Army West of the Dnepr. Another small pocket formed but as you can see my infantry is being kept very busy in the rear.
Note that I have been advancing airbases with the pace of the general advance, I will pay for this later as my fighter bases become chronically short on fuel.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn4 - 7/31/2016 7:54:57 PM

Aditia

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Production:

I obviously need to do some more tinkering with Max. TOE values as my manpower is being used up.
Armament points are building nicely.

Edit: Lol, wrong screenshot, anyway, my manpower at this point is tiny...

During the summer of 1941 I can summarize the following with what I did with Max TOE:

- High Morale infantry Div. and Motorised forces; 100% + Refit
- <80 morale Infantry Div 76%
- FlAK 50%, except units equipped with 88mm, they get 88% as the gun is so good and loads are produced anyway.
- Airbases and Corps HQs 93%. Kept these high as the actual TOE affects the effectiveness of the HQ, especially for movement points. Also, I want the airbases to keep the Luftwaffe in the air while it is strong.
- Most tubes to 66%, with exception of 5cm PAK, as it is the only effective gun against soviet heavy armor next to the 88mm. 5cm PAK gets 88%

I will have some screenshots of TOE tinkering later I think. In turn 12 I am sitting on 70k manpower and ca. 100k+ Armaments.

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< Message edited by Aditia -- 7/31/2016 8:30:12 PM >

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn4 - 7/31/2016 7:59:18 PM

Aditia

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Airlosses:

In general my losses have been very light, this turn a bit of an exception. I think I launched an Airbase attack on a fighter base, which kind of back fired.

These first few turns I keep bombing the airbases of the BBC. Bombing the bomber bases (a gew hexes away from fighter bases) reduces their use against my ground forces and it also draws out the fighter groups in an uncoordinated manner. Bombing fighter bases is a bit more dangerous.

Absolutely crucial is to manually select forces for bombing missions, otherwise you will see your level bomber losses psiral out of control.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn5 - 7/31/2016 8:04:14 PM

Aditia

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Turn 5 is a very eventful Turn:

In the North I find the Luga line barely manned.
In the Centre HQBU results in the majority of forces on the Dnepr SW of Smolensk being toast.
In the South it's a slow slow grind.

AGN
(1 Pz Corp Held back for HQBU, I think it is the only Pz Corp I have left here)
You can see Weichs' 2nd Army is moved here to compensate for the reduction of strength of moving one Army to V-Luki

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< Message edited by Aditia -- 7/31/2016 8:05:32 PM >

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn5 - 7/31/2016 8:10:49 PM

Aditia

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Smolensk

HQBU in action. That the pocket is not closed matters not. Those troops are done.

I avoided having to assault over a major river this way, and by doing it with HQBU the advance is deep enough to prevent any withdrawals in my opponent's turn.

It really shows the need for the Soviet player to be very wary of strong defences that are not protected on the flanks.
The Pz Corps east of V-Luki is beyond the end of supply and because I did not fully grasp the supply rules at this point it will be around there for a while :) The situation a few turns later forces me to research the supply rules in depth.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn5 - 7/31/2016 8:15:10 PM

Aditia

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AGS

Since I am obsessed with avoiding assaults on strong positions, I move the borrowed PzCorps north of Kiev, for an 'easier' crossing of 2 major rivers... 6th Army is done mopping up and is force marching to catch up there. The brown Army (17th?) is still very busy in the rear.

The Southern wing is still grinding through forces deployed in front of D-Town.

I will continue posting turns later.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn5 - 7/31/2016 10:05:04 PM

Peltonx

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A opening other then you only need 2 PD to take Riga, which is why turn 2 you were not across Pskov.

Other then that A+.

you are slowed down in south, but once your done mopping up it be a nice summer drive to Rostov.

key in south is when to peel of 3-8 divisions and head for Tula. There is a no gas station area that can "trap" your units so HQBU before heading north or have JU-52s do drops on Panzer Corp HQ's.
It will take 3 turns no matter what you do.

Great job here is my opening just look at the northern thrust so u get that at A+ not A-.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn5 - 7/31/2016 10:08:04 PM

Peltonx

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OHH sht one other thing stop moving Army HQs and LW bases turns 1-4.

1+1=2 ====== more MP's when your 25+ hexes from RHs.

A VERY simple thing people over look when it comes to logistics.

If the sht don't move it does not use supplies - you don't need the LW until turn 7+ if that.

Just like in WitW WA's really don't need AF other then to drop supplies = German border in 6 turns landings which
is better then 1.0 start line to Leningrad in 6 turns.

Testers/ 2by3 and most players can't add 1+1=2 and try to figure out why I am still getting to Leningrad in 4 turns,
D-town in 4 and Stalino in 7 4 yrs after 7 nerfs.

good skill set but as good as you are your wasting fuel.

A+ taking what your given = like Hitler saving German manpower, you will easly be over 4.25 million men by June 42 -
unlike morveal 3.6 C-.

Great job newbie

< Message edited by Pelton -- 7/31/2016 11:37:33 PM >

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 7/31/2016 11:48:48 PM

Aditia

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Thanks for the feedback Pelton. Yeah, fuel conservation only got onto my radar at turn 9 or so, doing better with it now, but I am steel feeling the effect of my overconsumption of fuel at the start.

Anyway, Turn 6:

It is becoming very clear that Leningrad is only very lightly defended.
Darbymcd explained to me that he wanted to try a different strategy this game:
- Heavily defend the south, enabling the evac of most of the industry there
- Defend Moscow
- Don't care about Leningrad

He calculates that if he can pull that off, the excess in saved industry will enable him to have a stronger 1943.
He wants to see if that can work as an alternative to the prevailing wisdom on the forum that holding Leningrad is key.

Apart from that, he admitted that he did not expect a drive on V-Luki at all, because none of his other opponents had any focus there.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 7/31/2016 11:50:44 PM

Aditia

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Leningrad AO:

HQBU results in outflanking the Luga line and most of the forces there are now trapped. Darbymcd did not think to defend the Janis, so the finns are now racing down Karelia.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 7/31/2016 11:54:04 PM

Aditia

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AGC

Smolensk is encircled and the PzCorps east of V-Luki has only 1 objective, and that is to prevent forts from being built while the infantry catches up.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 7/31/2016 11:56:16 PM

Aditia

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Gomel AO

Imminent link up of AGC and AGS. With Gomel now threatened the position between Chernigov and kiev seems untenable to me.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 8/1/2016 12:01:03 AM

Aditia

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AGS

I believe I did 1 HQBU on the Dnepr and moved up 2 Corps from 11th Army that will hopefully have enough MP next turn to do a deliberate assault across the Dnepr.

I had no clue what to do with my other Panzer forces here. I considered holding off on advancing and seeing if I can later on threaten to outflank D-town, but that seemed too risky and unsure for me. I opted to continue to drive forward to put pressure and expand the southern flank.

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 8/1/2016 12:02:38 AM

Peltonx

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Then simply pocket pocket pocket.

They don't have to be uber. Every pocket is a little fewer trucks for him.

The arm/hvy really matters little. He can't rail out manpower - pocket and over run as many manpower points as you can. You only need 3 PD to take Leningrad at this point.

4 infantry divisions loaded with pioneers and 12 hvy artillery in I Corp with Model in charge. Start bombing the 1 port closed.

Once your set 4 I Corp divisions/ 1 in same Army and 1 PD from LVI Corp. Have 1 PD broken down and one hole in reserve mode. Have 4th PD HQ/AGN HQ withen 5 hexes also.

OK your rdy do a HQBU for I Corp and LVI then hit it next turn. It will fall withen 2 turns as fort lvl will drop like a cheap street trick.

make him move everything to save Moscow while you have fun in the south.

You have already gotten a draw at min

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn6 - 8/1/2016 12:05:49 AM

Peltonx

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aditia

Gomel AO

Imminent link up of AGC and AGS. With Gomel now threatened the position between Chernigov and kiev seems untenable to me.

This is probably a big mistake, you can close the marsh with 1 cav division ( until exploit is fixed ). Your PD are or will be in fuel hell in this area, cav units require zip for fuel or supplies.

The one u have can do same thing faster check my AAR's

< Message edited by Pelton -- 8/1/2016 12:06:16 AM >

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RE: Aditia vs. Darbymcd Turn7 - 8/1/2016 12:10:42 AM

Aditia

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Turn 7

For this turn and the next couple turns my plan is simple.

North: Leningrad is open; prepare the assault and extract mobile forces when I can
Moscow: Recon shows troops moving into position to defend, but it seems too late to me. Here I am willing to over extend to deny forts to be built up.
South: He has a LOT of units in the south. I need to get across the Dnepr and force him to move. After I get across I can assess what to do next. He is on schedule in the south with evaccing industry, so my focus here is to destroy as much of the red army as I can and try and get to Stalino before mud.

Leningrad AO:

Luga line forces are in the bag now. Expanding across the Volkhov and moving towards Sviritsa. This turn I have started freeing up Pioneers and Hvy Arty to assign to the Corps assaulting Leningrad. Seeing how weekly it is held, I am not going to wait for Sviritsa to be taken to start the assault.