Zovs
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Joined: 2/23/2009
From: United States
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1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet)
Playing the 1941 Campaign - No Early End - Steam version MP Server Game
General Notes
Both thedoctorking and I (zovs) will be writing this AAR together from both the Axis and Soviets perspective. We are both beta testers and for myself I wanted this AAR to also be a test ground when new development patches need to be tested for future releases and for any balancing tweaks that the development team needs feedback on (this may not be possible with the Steam version but I think we can switch to a test version and then back to the Steam version, will need to check with the development team on this).
So, my hope for this AAR is to:
a) have some fun
b) let the public and development team see if they spot anything that may or may not be addressed
c) we don’t see too many two-sided AAR’s simultaneous running in the same thread. I get it in that competitive player may not want to show their cards and in some of those cases we may delay a turn but in general the idea and spirit of this AAR is for us to both chime in as we go along and write this out turn by turn. I may censor some of my back-end units, but in general I’ll just turn on the unit names instead of displaying CV's or zoom out a bit to hide that info when needed.
So, the general idea is to hopefully have a two sided AAR with both of us posting and perhaps even sharing some thoughts as we go along on strategies, tactics or game play. I don’t claim to be an expert and I know there are far more competent and competitive players then I, but I would like to think I know the current system well after testing it for a few years. So, ask questions, but I can’t guarantee I’ll know the answers but maybe others will, and it also depends on my time on how much I can add to this AAR. At any rate I hope you all enjoy.
Lastly, I am running my system via a 4k HD monitor so I have had to scale the images down so that they fit within the Matrix forums restrictions, but for those that might think it useful I'll also post an html link to where the the images are hosted so you can zoom in and see the images in more clarity without the scaling distortion.
Options
Playing with FOW/Movement FOW, No AI Air Assist and with Enhanced Player TB Control.
Starting and using version 1.02.08_Beta (development version future release on steam)
NOTES:
The version 1.02.08_Beta is now in the public domain (except for the future Steam version which is likely to come out soon).
I have been reading and following a lot of AAR's and even though I have been on Beta since 2019, there is always so much to learn from others. I wanted to post a shoutout to HardLuckYetAgain not only for his informative AARs but also for his 'mentoring' me in some of the finer aspects of playing as the Axis/Germans. Personally, I think we are a good fit since he is a Jarhead, and I am a Dumb A$$ Tanker (DAT for short), so thank you HLYA for all your helpful insights and tutoring and putting up with my DAT questions lol.
CAMPAIGN GOALS
General
Destruction of Soviet Air and Ground forces.
AGN
Soviet Supply depots at Riga, Daugavpils, Jelgava, Vilnius, and Kaunas.
AGC
Soviet Supply depots at Minsk, Grodno, Bialystok, Baranovichi, Brest Litovsk, and Kobrin.
AGS
Soviet Supply depots at Lvov, Kovel, and Sambor.
Turn 1 - 22-Jun-1941
Air Phase:
Air Attack is based on my document I created for the manual air war located here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5101678
I setup 41 AD (one more than my document above) and this is the overall results from those AD's:
This was one air ground attack from Luftflotte 2 (AGC) that did not go so well, all these losses should be Me 110.
The Romanians lost almost three-quarters their fighters and near half their bombers with the attack on Ochakov.
Here are the overall losses from the turn 1 airfield ground attack:
My losses are a little higher than I would have liked as far as airframe's go, but my overall Pilot KIA is good at 74 to 685. Unfortunately, I lost 15 fighter pilots (only 2 of which were German and the rest were Romanians flying the Hurricane I). I did lose 19 Fighter Bombers (17 of which were Bf 110E-2). I lost 3 tactical bombers, but all were Romanian or Hungarian. The biggest losses were the 112 level bombers, with the Germans loosing 53 and the remaining 59 from the Axis minors.
The Soviet loss in Pilots is pretty good at 685 and I am happy with destroying 3,982 on the ground and shooting down 29 in air combat. What may seem a mystery to you is the 38 Last Action losses for the Soviets and 2 level bombers for the Axis. My guess is that those losses are from damaged planes from the air execution phase.
Overall, I am pleased with the first turn air strikes and only more Soviet Pilots will be KIA during my ground phase.
Ground Phase
At start actions
Generally, I look at the turn summary, weather report, logistics and battle locations. For turn 1 obviously the turn summary, logistics report and battle locations are not very useful.
Weather Report
Weather is clear, some rain in the Baltics.
Logistic Reports
Nothing on the first turn.
Commanders Report
The next thing I am doing is going through the Commanders Report (CR) and see what needs attention.
For this game I am setting all units Max TOE % to 50 (easily done in the CR).
I also set the HQ's supply priority to 1 for all ground units and leave all German Luftflotte, the two Axis Minors Air HQ's as well as the TB as default (hint use the filters). When I go to the map, I set all Panzer Groups to supply priority 2.
I am sending all the Bf 110E-2 to the retrain as fighters (after the turn 1 air execution phase).
I am also sending all the SU up to OKH (all set to 0) and on turn 2 I'll cycle through and transfer them to where I want them to go and make sure they are locked.
Based off what HLYA has done and recommends/suggests I am transferring the two Construction units from Norway to the map (only can be done if the TB are on).
Since we are playing with TB on, I am going to transfer all the units in the Reserve that are at 100% TOE to the map so that they are available in the upcoming turns.
I'd like to have the Fuehrer Begleit on map and when the two StuG battalions achieve 100% TOE, for now I am just transferring the Fuehrer Begleit to the map. I am also transferring the 314th Coastal Fortress Construction battalion unit to the map. Several of the AA units are ready and several are not. The 2/55th SP Flak Company and 5/52nd SP Flak Company which have vehicles, so I transferred them to the map. Lastly, I am transferring the 861st, 751st LW mot. Light Flak battalions to North Africa, the 2/47th Mot. Light Flak Company to Norway, and the 772nd, and 773rd LW Light Flak Battalion to North Africa as well. That leaves five Mixed and five Heavy Flak battalions in reserve.
We will see how these at start actions impact the game during upcoming turns.
So, for example, at start North Africa is showing 77% ground and Norway is showing 97% ground. On turn 2 we will see what percentage (if any) has made an impact on these theaters and these transfers.
Turn Summary
I am not going to write a unit by unit moves or updates for each turn but instead just a basic end of turn summary of what has happened, unless its something interesting or instructive.
Pilot's data
Here is the list of all pilot's status:
Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/KK55KEv.jpg
The total Air results were 79 battles with 76 AF bombing missions and 3 Air Combat missions. For the ground all together I did 99 attacks, (96 Hasty and 3 Deliberate).
End of Turn 1
End of turn map with both air and ground losses:
Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/caomxEv.jpg
Here is a breakdown by Battle Result:
Retreated 10
Shattered 50
Surrendered 17
Routed 21
Victory Points
Captured 11 Bonus Victory Points (VP); Minsk, Lvov, and Riga.
Total possible Soviet units encircled (based on map and detection level):
4x Army HQ
5x Rifle Corps HQ
1x Cavalry Corps HQ
4x Mech Corps HQ
35x Rifle Divisions
3x Cavalry Divisions
2x Mountain Divisions
12x Tank Divisions
6x Mech Divisions
6x Sec Battalions
1x AT battalions
18x Fort MG/Art battalions
18x Unknown, most appear to be Rifle Divisions and at least 3x HQ units
Broken down by Army Group
AGN Pockets:
Total possible Soviet units encircled:
1x Army HQ
1x Rifle Corps HQ
9x Rifle Divisions
2x Tank Divisions
2x Mech Divisions
8x Fort MG/Art battalions
5x Unknown, most likely Rifle Divisions and maybe 1 Sec battalion and 1x HQ unit
AGC Pockets:
Total possible Soviet units encircled:
2x Army HQ
3x Rifle Corps HQ
1x Cavalry Corps HQ
4x Mech Corps HQ
19x Rifle Divisions
2x Cavalry Divisions
7x Tank Divisions
4x Mech Divisions
4x Sec Battalions
8x Fort MG/Art battalions
13x Unknown, most appear to be Rifle Divisions and 2x HQ units
AGS Pockets:
Total possible Soviet units encircled:
1x Army HQ
1x Rifle Corps HQ
7x Rifle Divisions
1x Cavalry Divisions
2x Mountain Divisions
3x Tank Divisions
2x Sec Battalions
1x AT battalions
2x Fort MG/Art battalions
Turn Conclusions
So, all in all I have completed my objectives for the start of Barbarossa.
The General Objectives will obviously be a work in progress over time, but I think with the destruction of almost 5,000 aircraft and almost 1,500 Soviet pilots I am off to a great start. While the Soviet ground losses do not seem that high with only 174,209 losses in men, 5,203 in guns and only 588 in AFV's, versus my Axis losses for the surprise attack with just over 6,000 men, 311 guns and 3 AFV for which I am quite pleased with. The next two turns will most likely be the highest Soviet losses after which I am assuming the losses will taper off and/or unless I can manage some major encirclements in August and October-November before the winter hits.
All three Army Groups were able to achieve the goals I set for them, mainly the taking of Riga, Minsk, and Lvov, but more specifically with capturing the Soviet supply depots set out in the beginning of my AAR (sans AGS which did not capture of Sambor and instead pocketed several divisions behind the lines).
Hopefully the mop up operations and the drive towards Pskov, Smolensk and Kiev will go well and set me up for the further drives to the east.
...to be continued...
_____________________________
 Beta Tester for: Flashpoint Campaigns: Sudden Storm War in the East 1 & 2 WarPlan & WarPlan Pacific Valor & Victory DG CWIE 2 SPWW2 & SPMBT scenario creator
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