RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (Full Version)

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ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/27/2012 5:53:27 PM)

The AI's combat bonuses and the effects of entrenchment result in sort of a small unit problem: the 3 artillery regiments, with just a battalion of infantry, stop the attacks of 2-3 Panzer/motorized divisions from three sides with relative ease. One of the artillery groups was destroyed this turn.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/BC54940E428E48AEA721FF0B891FD9F8.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/27/2012 6:00:08 PM)

I should be able to attack Gerbent next turn.

Keep in mind that although the artillery takes 4 turns to recharge fully, when they move they attract a very small amount of supply, so it's actually 4 turns+the turns needed for the units to move within range of their target.

As you can see, the difficult terrain has limited my advance to 1 or 2 hexes per turn. The terrain AP costs, AP costs for attacking across a river, combined with an average of 60-70 AP's in general makes sure my advance is slow, but I will attack the 14th Tank corps next turn as well as the 43th Rifle brigade blocking my progress along the road.

As you can see, even though the opening turns were a disaster for the Soviets, the terrain and weather bought them a lot of time.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/30CC123861DA491FB73EB46A447E4E53.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:41:03 AM)

The attack on Gerbent was postponed until the artillery had some more power. As it turned out, even 6 nearly fully powered artillery regiments barely removed 30 entrenchment points out of the 140 or so. Artillery is truly underwhelming.

As Gerbent functions as a port, the AI also doesn't face supply problems. Still, even units that are out of supply quickly entrench again in their part of the turn after being attacked. Few things are more annoying than some out of supply units entrenching back to 50 over and over whilst your artillery is more or less powerless.

There's another issue: The manual implies that panicking units retreat. They don't. As long as a unit in the hex doesn't retreat, the panicking defenders also stay where they are. That means, for example, that when you encircle a stack, as long as 1 of the units in the stack doesn't retreat, the others will remain in the hex unless they break or retreat normally (although I don't think I've seen many retreat results for pocketed units).

[image]local://upfiles/32881/A17D08519D6C4A0DAD9FFED6884ECDCA.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:41:52 AM)

The advance continues, at a slow pace.

Attacking in difficult terrain costs a lot of AP's, so even small forces can slow down my advance significantly.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/AFC743E62619454694D3BEA0C7896779.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:43:22 AM)

Gerbent is finally taken during this turn, at a substantial cost of a few hundred men.

I'm starting to wonder if artillery is just underpowered or if the AI gets bonuses that result in a smaller reduction of entrenchment levels when attacked.



[image]local://upfiles/32881/A183E0C538544179A7F6BFCCADEEEFAD.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:44:39 AM)

We're slowly moving towards clear terrain.

There seems to be a glitch concerning air units replacements that stay in the Panzer Armee HQ. When I select "all" for an air strike, the Panzer Armee HQ also shows up in the list and adds to the stacking value even though the planes in it won't participate in the actual air strike.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/4A0341070F014C5F9577ABF456E7E945.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:45:41 AM)

More Soviet reinforcements show up, but it's clear that resistance is lessening.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/399CBFCF5FBB4FC5A66F92FF948033B9.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:46:49 AM)

LII Korps is moving towards the front, the Panzer Korps slowly push forwards.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/4306B2F060AD430AA9712170A70EA32C.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:48:01 AM)

Soviet reinforcements cause the advance to slow down to a crawl yet again until the units at the flanks can be removed.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/2C9B3C04F7F242B9904F9CE7910A282E.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:48:48 AM)

The breakthrough we've been waiting for is about to happen.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/1D5ECE50DAF049A1B05D4FF9B0E26AA5.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:50:02 AM)

The Soviets start to pull back. At this point I thought I might reach Baku in 5 turns and was hoping there wouldn't be an unkillable stack there.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/358D2B2DEA5749AE87FA3C3BF8395F17.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:51:44 AM)

As it turned out, the AI withdrew everything towards the southwest, seemingly protecting the area with the most objectives (there are a number of towns/cities on the other side of the mountain range, I've only shown part of the map because only the road to Baku mattered) instead of the area with the only important objective.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/9B777CAB804841999FB81CD5B3A953D9.jpg[/image]




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 11:53:49 AM)

Only Caucasus Front was in Baku and it moved out of the city center.

Victory on turn 20.

Soviet losses: 58.5k.
My losses: 3620.

The AI fought well initially, but its peculiar retreat (at first I thought the AI had more units in Baku and was just forming a wider line) in the final turns sped up my victory considerably.

It was an enjoyable campaign, and quite challenging at times, particularly with the AI advantages in combat.

Aside from the artillery and air power performance issues and autoentrenchment, the only other thing that feels odd is that there's such a big difference between casualties when attacking an entrenched enemy and a non-entrenched enemy. In my opinion, casualties for the former could increase slightly and casualties for the latter could be reduced.

[image]local://upfiles/32881/33E3945EB5B74F8B845EA04C2B2A1053.jpg[/image]




Vic -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 12:02:54 PM)

I enjoyed the read Comrade!

If you have the time could you send me a savefile of a few turns before you capture Baku (if you have any) to vic@xs4all.nl
I would like to see if i could finetune the AI a little bit here for Patch 2.

best,
Vic




ComradeP -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 12:26:25 PM)

The save for the turn prior to the AI's withdrawal to the southwest? I think I have an end turn save for my turn 17, the turn where the AI pulled back in its part of the turn.




Keunert -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (7/29/2012 12:41:04 PM)

thank you Comrade P, was an interesting read and you definately know how to wargame...




Hugolin -> RE: 1st Panzer Army AAR (4/9/2013 4:06:30 PM)

A bit late, but good read yes, thank you! It's a lot of work to do AARs.




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