Grognard1812 (Soviet) vs Pitaman

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Gary Grigsby's War in the East Series >> After Action Reports >> Grognard1812 (Soviet) vs Pitaman

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Grognard1812 (Soviet) vs Pitaman - 7/24/2020 11:23:36 AM

Grognard1812

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From: Canada
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This is my second attempt at writing an After Action Report as the Soviet player.

The settings for this game are,

1941 - 1945 Campaign Game
Server game
Using the latest Beta - 1.12.05
Full Fog of War
Locked HQ support
Random weather (adds more variability to the game)
Full blizzard
No Soviet combat bonus
Default CV mode

The agreed house rules are

No airborne drops
No amphibious naval landings before Dec 41
No airfield bombings after turn 1 (Airfield bombing mechanics presently favor the Soviet player after turn 1 - I think this will allow for a more historical and playable game)

As we are about 2 to 4 turns ahead in playing the game, Pitaman is welcome to the AAR.

Post #: 1

Turn 1 Air War - 7/24/2020 11:30:09 AM

Grognard1812

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The Soviet air losses for Turn 1 were 6,167

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Post #: 2

RE: Turn 1 Air War - 7/24/2020 11:36:31 AM

Grognard1812

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In the North the Axis captured Riga with a few panzer units crossing the Daugava river.

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Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 11:40:45 AM

Grognard1812

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In the Center the Axis units got as far as Minsk, also creating a couple pockets.

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RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 11:49:06 AM

Grognard1812

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In the South, a large Lvov pocket was formed, as a German panzer division is next to the Romanian border it will be probably be difficult to open up the pocket during the Soviet Turn 1.

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RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 11:58:52 AM

Grognard1812

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I was able to open up both pockets in the North. But at the end of turn 1 the defenses around Pskov are not as strong as they should be, missing a few units to cover the defenses behind the river - I ran out of railroad capacity to transport units, I should have planned better.

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RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 12:05:30 PM

Grognard1812

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I was able to open up both pockets in the Center and set up defenses behind the Berezina river.

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RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 12:16:10 PM

Grognard1812

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In the South the only thing that kept me from opening up the Lvov pockets was a sole German Cavalry Regiment - it didn't succeed due a failed deliberate attack by 3 Soviet rifle divisions - this will a be a long difficult summer for the Soviet army.

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Post #: 8

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 1:19:23 PM

chaos45

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Needed to drum up some soviet bombers for that attack in the south, may have got you the win if you had done 2 decent sized bombing raids on it first.

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Post #: 9

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 4:10:54 PM

Grognard1812

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quote:

ORIGINAL: chaos45

Needed to drum up some soviet bombers for that attack in the south, may have got you the win if you had done 2 decent sized bombing raids on it first.

Agreed, thank you for your advise. I should have done a couple unit bombing missions before the attack.

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Post #: 10

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 4:15:42 PM

Grognard1812

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In the south I did a general retreat of units setting up a defensive line just west of Zhitomir, I was trying to avoid getting more Soviet units encircled the following turn.

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RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 4:30:17 PM

Telemecus

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Good to see you back for more action!

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Post #: 12

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 9:34:48 PM

Grognard1812

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Thank you. Looking forward to doing another AAR, should be an interesting game.

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Post #: 13

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 9:50:44 PM

Grognard1812

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Summary of Soviet Turn 1

Against an experienced Axis player I think the best a Soviet player can hope for is to open a few pockets the first turn - Since I was able to open the pockets in the North and Center I was then able to reassign 9 Art Reg and 7 sapper Bn from the pocket HQs to STAVKA - saving them from being captured the following turns. I also moved out any HQ units that had enough MPs.

All the air units that were severely affected by the Axis Turn 1 Airfield bombing were transferred to the National Reserve.

Other than the units needed to open the pockets I think the best first turn strategy for the Soviets is to run, as the German panzer units will still have a lot of fuel left for their second turn and would just encircle more Soviet units on turn 2.

Any advise, comments, or criticisms would be appreciated - I think the Soviet long term strategic goal is to try to defend the Leningrad - Moscow - Rostov line - but against an experienced Axis player it will be very difficult.

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Post #: 14

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 10:17:55 PM

chaos45

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if you had anything better to do than save the sapper BNs that would have been a better choice...or just disband them with that AP. They IMO are about worthless since they no longer convert to regiments. The manpower is better used in other units.

Just an FYI in case you are used to the old sapper regiment strategy.

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Post #: 15

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 10:22:35 PM

CapAndGown

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Why are you leaving fortified regions in place and not disbanding? They don't make much of a speed bump.

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Post #: 16

RE: Turn 1 - 7/24/2020 11:39:59 PM

redrum68

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Looks like a pretty good start.

Other uses for AP in early turns are:
1. Disbanding fort units (saves a decent amount of manpower)
2. Reassigning AA from cities within 5 hexes of enemies (especially regiments)
3. Disbanding inf corp HQs that have really poor leaders and good army HQ leaders (these eventually disband anyways but takes a while)
4. Assigning a few of your best leaders to important army HQs (Pskov, land bridge, etc)

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Post #: 17

RE: Turn 1 - 7/25/2020 12:18:26 AM

eskuche

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Forts I think are a toss-up to disband. Yes they are 4,000 arms points, but on turn 2 if the 3 MP used to destroy them saves a good division of 10,000 men that is clearly worth the trade.
In my last Soviet game I fell into the trap of reassigning too many un-pocketed SUs with most of my AP turn 1, leaving none available to figure out C&C for dire regions.

It is clearly too late, but you should consider bombing Axis airbases turn 1. They look very forward and might even be able to be displaced after attacking spearhead units.

The Pskov defense is no longer reliable against an Axis opponent who crosses the Dvina in any strength due to lack of rail transport.

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Post #: 18

RE: Turn 1 - 7/25/2020 7:34:38 PM

Ridgeway

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quote:

ORIGINAL: redrum68

3. Disbanding inf corp HQs that have really poor leaders and good army HQ leaders (these eventually disband anyways but takes a while)

Is this right? I didn't think having a bad Corps commander had any effect on the Army commander dice rolls. IOW, if you have a crappy Corps commander, you still have some chance to pass that initial roll, and even if you fail, you have the same odds at the Army level as you would have if there were no Corps commander at all. Is that wrong?

I do see that there could be an effect in combat if the Corps commander were the overall commander, as opposed to the superior Army commander.

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Post #: 19

RE: Turn 1 - 7/25/2020 8:29:18 PM

Shupov

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quote:

Section 11.3.2. Chain of Command Rating Checks

Leader rating checks go up the chain of command (7.7). There can be up to four headquarter units in the chain but the first is always the IHQ and the last the High Command headquarters unit. At its simplest the IHQ carries out an initial Die(10) roll range check. If it fails the leader of the next higher headquarters in the chain of command conducts a check with the roll range doubled (to 20, 40, 80) for each successive check up the chain of command.

The range doubling modification makes each successive check less likely to succeed. This makes the immediate commander (the IHQ, in this case the Corps commander) the most important.

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Post #: 20

RE: Turn 1 - 7/25/2020 8:34:49 PM

redrum68

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Shupov is correct. You can actually see the impact if you play with better CV as the CV on the unit counters will often increase significantly if say you had a inf division assigned to a corps HQ with a very poor leader (say 3 rating across the board) with a very strong army HQ leader like Zhukov and disband the corps HQ.

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Post #: 21

Turn 2 - 7/26/2020 6:15:48 PM

Grognard1812

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On turn 2, in the Pskov area the Soviet defenses behind the Velikaya river held up reasonably well with only one German motorized division getting across the river.

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Post #: 22

Turn 2 - 7/26/2020 6:26:14 PM

Grognard1812

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In an impressive move by my Axis opponent, the German panzers broke through the Soviet defenses at the Ulla river and captured the city of Vitebsk and converted most of the hexes normally used for the land bridge defense between Vitebsk and Mogilev.

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Post #: 23

Turn 2 - 7/26/2020 6:36:38 PM

Grognard1812

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At the start of Soviet Turn 2, in the South the Soviet defenses were effective in preventing any major breakthrough in the area around the city of Vinnitsa.

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Post #: 24

RE: Turn 2 - 7/26/2020 7:57:08 PM

chaos45

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In the south that looks like an easy cut off of that panzer spearhead...he left his flanks way to open

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Post #: 25

Soviet Turn 2 - 7/27/2020 10:25:46 AM

Grognard1812

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quote:

ORIGINAL: chaos45

In the south that looks like an easy cut off of that panzer spearhead...he left his flanks way to open

Agreed, but due to a lack of MPs of the nearby Soviet units I was only able to cut off the forward 2 panzer and 1 mot division. This is the situation in the South at the end of Soviet Turn 2.

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Post #: 26

Soviet Turn 2 - 7/27/2020 10:40:39 AM

Grognard1812

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Due to the situation in the Center around Vitebsk, I wasn't able to send enough units to the Pskov area to set up a solid defense and decided to retreat towards Leningrad to set up a better defensive line on turn 3.

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Post #: 27

Soviet Turn 2 - 7/27/2020 10:53:07 AM

Grognard1812

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In the Center I was able to cut off the leading 2 German panzer and 3 motorized divisions, and then also apply ZOC pressure to four more panzer and motorized units. The cut off panzer and motorized units will not be receiving any fuel the next turn, which will hopefully slow down the Axis units in the area. At this early stage of the game it appears that the Axis main objective is Moscow with Leningrad being the secondary objective, as there are at least 3 panzer corps in the Center. This is the situation at the end of Soviet Turn 2.

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Soviet Turn 2 - 7/27/2020 11:21:15 AM

Grognard1812

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Summary of Soviet Turn 2

Whenever possible I think it is extremely important to cut off the leading German panzer and motorized units, as the following turn these units will not be receiving any additional fuel or replacements, wearing them down and slowing down the Axis advance.

I still think the best strategy the first few turns for the Soviet player is to run - as this extends the Axis supplies lines - both for their receiving supplies and replacements, and reduces the ability of the Axis player to encircle Soviet units the first few turns

This turn I assigned IL-4 level bombers (they have a range of over 100 hexes) and Soviet air transports to VVS airbases which will then on turn 3 be assigned to night missions so that they can supply partisans during the game.

As previously recommended any remaining isolated fortified regions were disbanded.

A number of Soviet Corps HQs were disbanded who had poor leaders, any support units in these Corps HQ were automatically reassigned to the next level army HQ without any further admin point cost.

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Post #: 29

RE: Soviet Turn 2 - 7/27/2020 12:33:10 PM

chaos45

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using the security unit at poskirov...should have allowed you to cut off the entire spearhead unless there were German units there not show in the screen shot. Maybe no depending on morale of your units but it looks like a for sure thing from MPs I see on your units.

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Post #: 30

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