German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (Full Version)

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brianlala -> German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 4:14:09 AM)

Here's a quick AAR to show how I did the fourth scenario of the Operation Barbarossa campaign as Germany. This is my first time playing this scenario so I'm sure I've made plenty of stupid mistakes.

This first image shows the scenario introduction. Pay attention to that map! I've noticed that it isn't just for looks and on the second scenario in this campaign it really helped me out in determining how to set up my units after failing 2 times in that scenario.



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brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 4:25:29 AM)

Here's a picture of the scenario objectives. Sokolivka is the city in the north on that road. Uman looks like little more than a hauptbahnhof right at the end of that rail line and the Soviet air command headquarters is right next to Uman. Unfortunately there is either no zoom out (or I am just too lazy to find out how to do it) so I can't show you the whole scenario map all at once.

On the mini-map in the lower right, you can see the scenario objectives in yellow and my deployment area in light blue. You can see some of my units that I have to deploy as well.

I think PC wargamers are the most nit-picky people so I'm just going to throw in an odd complaint that really doesn't have any effect on game play. My first unit is appropriately named Aufklaerung (recon unit) in German but most of the other units have generic English names. I wished the designers (Germans, I believe) had just stuck to one naming strategy and named everything in either German or in English (I'd prefer German but I can speak the language). One thing I did like about the naming conventions in this game was that the designers did seem to pick out real units of note and put their names in quotes...At least I think I saw that this scenario on a Russian bomber...but I could just be drunk

[image]local://upfiles/29551/D7E6D668D7A14FE0A8FAA4CB5DDF5A55.jpg[/image]



balto -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 4:31:08 AM)

Thank you very very very much for doing this.



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 4:36:05 AM)

No problem. I'm bored. I'm drunk. I just lost my job. My German girlfriend just euthanized my dog and then broke up with me and kicked me out of the house so that I had to return to the U.S...so I have some free time on my hands to do this first AAR of mine. [&:]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 4:44:33 AM)

I'm dividing my forces up into three groups. I'll be boring and call them army groups north, middle, and south. Here's Army Group South:

Army Group South is composed of one German artillery unit, one German stug anti-tank unit (division? Brigade?), one German "regular" infantry unit, and one reserve Romanian infantry unit (sitting on the objective in the image). Also notice the half-strength (5) Romanian bomber and fighter units. I'll use these non-core (meaning I won't carry them into the next scenarios in the campaign) Romanian units to scout out the battlefield on turn 1.

The objective of this army group will be to capture the bridge in the image to prevent any Soviet units in the south from counterattacking. If resistance is weak then we'll use these units to continue pushing along an axis of advance south of the Buq River and to capture the 5 non-essential victory hexes (which oftentimes give "resources" which can then be used to buy more units or re-arm/refit/resupply/upgrade my existing units.

A couple of notes. You can see in the upper right hand corner the dates Jul. 29-31 1941, and the images next to them shows a sun. This means my air units will be able to do bombing and strafing missions on these days. After the last scenario I purchased my first bomber (a Sturzkampfflugzeug/STUKA JU87B) and combined with my highly effective fighter FW190A and the 2 Romanian air units, I'm pretty stoked about my mini air force this scenario.

Also I'll point out that the blue dots all along the south and north of the mini map represent objectives that are not essential to victory. These are still good to take and can provide nice surprises to your units. I especially like the commentary that occurs when you take any objective. This was a nice touch (not seen in Panzer General) and would give me an idea of why I was supposed to take certain objectives in the game. Combined with the cool and detailed maps in the scenario introduction, these are the types of little things that really add a lot of flavor to a game and make them enjoyable to me.

[image]local://upfiles/29551/AE525112CB114B42A22DAAF4EE01526E.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 5:07:11 AM)

Here's Army Group Middle/Mitte. This army group looks small but consists of my most elite and powerful units. The infantry division is an "assault" unit and has higher soft and hard attack values than "regular" infantry. The panzer unit is a Pz.Kpfw. IV and has the highest soft attack value of the 3 or 4 types of tanks I can use. The other unit is a mid-range anti-tank gun of some sorts in case the Soviets counterattack along this rail line.

The plan for this army group is to advance as far along the rail line towards Uman as is possible and then stop if resistance is met. Why? Well, if you look at the scenario introduction that's what the plan calls for and who am I to disobey my Führer. Call me an uncreative, obedient Paulus if you want. Jerkstores.

Actually now I'll gripe about AAR writers like myself that can't add the snazzy graphics and lines to their images....ahh




[image]local://upfiles/29551/626A567E7FE14DADA77B10D6BB19B452.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 5:24:00 AM)

Here is my Army Group North. The 2 infantry units furthest to the north are a "regular" unit and a pionier unit that I bought after the last scenario. I plan to use the pionier unit with its excellent soft and hard attack values (the best of the infantry?) to dislodge whatever is in that non-essential objective town along the river and then to hold my northern flank.

My main thrust will be along the road to Sokolivka. Here I'm going to allocate the bulk of my panzers (a PzIVC and PzIIIH) plus a recon unit and one regular infantry unit. Also I have 2 non-core Romanian infantry units in brown and a Romanian cavalry unit. You can see my stuka and fighter sitting on the airfield as well. The recon unit has revealed one half-strength Soviet infantry unit in the woods after I placed the recon unit on the map. I hope to punch through the soviet lines along this road, take Sokolivka and then wheel south along that north-south running road between Uman and Sokolivka (seen in my second post) to hit Uman and the soviet airfield with this force.

[image]local://upfiles/29551/3EDFF8EF3C4240ECA2DDCB0AF6D18DC9.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 5:34:41 AM)

Here's a second image showing my planned main axis of advance along that road and Sokolivka with the victory objective and staff sitting on it. Why can I only place one image per post? Argghhh. Matrix Games AAR forumland is crazy.




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brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 5:42:42 AM)

Here's the start of turn 1. My southern army group unexpectedly met no resistance and was able to take a non-essential victory hex (you can see the tank sitting on it). At this point it looks like the Soviets have made a rather large blunder and Army Group South will take the bridge in one more turn (barring no new resistance).

Interestingly, the Romanian bomber unit started off the scenario with a free upgrade. I believe I chose anti-tank (or whatever it is called) as the upgrade as it gives +4 to attacks against tanks. None of the other upgrade options made much sense considering that I know I won't be taking this non-core unit with me into future scenarios in this campaign.



[image]local://upfiles/29551/0DA18DB2A4AE4087AB9C7F5F4BCB5126.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 5:50:41 AM)

The middle (along the rail line) and northern parts of the battlefield aren't heavily defended either aside from the 10 strength BT-26 tank in the middle and 5 strength KV-40(?) tank sitting up north. Only the KV-40 can hurt me but my stuka should do a number on it. If there are more armor reserves coming up from Uman or Sokolivka then I reserve the right to change my opinion about what looks like puny Soviet defenses.

Here is the picture during the middle of my portion of round 1 (right before I send off the Stuka against the KV-40).



[image]local://upfiles/29551/2F5FE1822D67438695F23F98F4597BDD.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:04:00 AM)

The soviets focused their round on counterattacking my pionier unit up north and things did not go well for them. They had to evacuate that far north victory objective town (next to the river) after one of their attacks and the KV-40 was only able to knock off 1 of my pionier's 10 strength (or whatever you call it). So far this scenario is shaping up to be the easiest of the 4 scenarios in the campaign...perhaps because I have yet to lose a core unit and now my core units are starting to get good upgrades (lots of my units have either a +3 or +5 to their soft attack values).

You can see which units have upgrades (although not what specific upgrade) by looking for the tiny white flags next to the unit's strength. For instance, my unit in the far lower left corner of this image has one upgrade (the white flag) and one level of experience (I think), which is that yellow star looking thing (why yellow stars on German units in a world war 2 game?)....Here's the part where I tell you I'm too lazy to look up what specific quantitative benefits you get from a more experienced unit. I'll look that up later.

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brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:09:11 AM)

On turn 2 my advance continued. Resistance is sporadic at best on the northern front and so far it looks like the main soviet resistance is going to come at the three essential victory locations of Uman, Sokolivka, and the air force command center (the yellow victory objectives)



[image]local://upfiles/29551/68DB3A2403C0457EA893E0986760B273.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:13:06 AM)

Southern Front meets a little resistance but should be easily brushed aside in a turn. You can also see Army Group Middle getting held up. As expected, this is where the most resistance has occurred.



[image]local://upfiles/29551/94BCF4EDEBA841BF893284462BC01AAE.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:25:08 AM)

I met little resistance on turns 3 and 4 aside from in the middle so no point in posting screenshots here. Haha, ok, actually I spilled liquid on myself and then forgot to take screen shots for those turns.

On turn 4 I took Sokolivka and then started to wheel south towards Uman and the airfield but found most of my Army Group North units running low on petrol or ammo so had to use turn 5 to resupply my units. That's ok because Army Group Middle needed the airforce this turn to clear up the resistance in the middle. The Soviets really messed up south of the Buq River by garrisoning few units there and now I am set to hit Uman and the airfield with Army Group North and Army Group South simultaneously (you can see the Army group south just...um...south of Uman at the end of the rail line).

[image]local://upfiles/29551/6366FEBBB75045BD8FF35DB66548F58A.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:28:09 AM)

I did make one stupid mistake on turn 5. I sent some of my units to capture some non-essential victory locations just north of Sokolivka. I'm now about to lose the first of my core units, a regular infantry unit, after it was ambushed by hidden Soviet artillery. This was a totally needless move by me that I did to try and get a few extra "resource" points. Now it's going to cost me a 120 resource infantry unit that had 2 experience stars and 1 upgrade. Arghh.

[image]local://upfiles/29551/E7E09DEC0DF943FE9CD3CF1573708F43.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:32:08 AM)

Here's turn 5 or is it 6 now? (my picture labeling assistant is getting lazy and will be fired...that's a promise!) The last of the victory locations are about to fall and I will get my bittersweet (because of the loss of the 1 core unit) brilliant victory.



[image]local://upfiles/29551/490EF7071CF0409A88EF2D48BB99C4DF.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:34:07 AM)

Here's turn 7 (or is it 9 now?). Uman falls. Victory.

[image]local://upfiles/29551/F8EE4B56DC53426FA5F6700EF93E4888.jpg[/image]



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 6:38:59 AM)

Here are my campaign stats so far if you haven't fallen asleep yet. I'm playing on the middle difficulty level (officer) of the three difficulty levels. Overall, I'd say I put the most planning into this scenario and the most scouting at the start of the scenario. It definitely payed off and I had a much easier go of things in this scenario than in the previous 2 scenarios before this one (which were brutal fights). I even had to reload 2 times already because of the difficulty of the second scenario...which is excellent by the way and was really fun but I was too lazy to make an AAR for that one.

[image]local://upfiles/29551/FB9412454AB746928883BEFF1F5DDB6E.jpg[/image]



Obsolete -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 1:51:26 PM)

I see you missed a brillian victory.

tut-tut-tut!!!




Joshuatree -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/11/2009 3:58:18 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: brianlala

No problem. I'm bored. I'm drunk. I just lost my job. My German girlfriend just euthanized my dog and then broke up with me and kicked me out of the house so that I had to return to the U.S...so I have some free time on my hands to do this first AAR of mine. [&:]


Sounds familiar. Been there and done that [:(] Basically it sucks.
But, look at it from the bright side (whistles Monty Python tune..), now you got more time to play awesome games and hang out with us. [;)]
Take care and thanks for the AAR.



desert dawg -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/12/2009 4:58:05 PM)

Hey brian, danke shern (sp?), we are about the same place in the game and I was looking for an AAR to this scenario. Really, sorry to hear about you dog, and oh, I guess your fruenden. Any person who would euthanize a dog out of spite or hate (if that's why she did it) is a female dog in heat (btch). Do you live in Germany? I did and had a very nice german girlfriend. But, that was about 20 years ago (dang I'm getting old). Please keep the AAR's coming.



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/14/2009 8:30:40 PM)

Thanks for the comments guys. I am now on the last scenario (I think) of this campaign, having fought my way to Moskau. There are definitely a couple of scenarios that are quite difficult mixed into this campaign. 



brianlala -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/15/2009 8:17:34 AM)

Campaign completed. See if you can beat my Operation Barbarossa campaign score. I did lose and was forced to reload multiple times on one or two of the later scenarios so this score does involve "cheating" if you will.


[image]local://upfiles/29551/8CB778CAAB7F4163984964F772E0FBBA.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: German Operation Barbarossa Campaign Scenario 4 (9/15/2009 12:26:34 PM)

Congratulations on winning the first campaign! I needed a total of three "re-dos" the first time through as well, some of those scenarios are tough. Try the Soviet campaign or Case Blue (which is even harder) next.



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