RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 2 (Full Version)

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thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 2 (2/19/2019 5:20:18 AM)

Total casualties as of the end of Axis 2 are 435,977 Soviet to 30,717 German. In the air, it’s 4,699 to 99. Deployed numbers are 3,269,206 German (3,205 aircraft) to 3,347,901 Soviet (1,903 aircraft).



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 2 (2/19/2019 5:24:41 AM)

Army Group Center commander Herr General ST reports: "This turn at first I was not going to go so all in with my pocket but I felt it would coincide well to use up more Soviet rail, allocations, resources with AGS's moves to try and pocket as much as possible
Apart from that I just made sure my supply lines would be fine and accepted turn 3 would be a very limp one"



[image]local://upfiles/56634/AA60D339CCF0469A9D79EB9CCDA131EE.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 2 (2/19/2019 5:27:24 AM)

And Herr General mrhuggles in AGS reports: "For the second turn I looked to stop the fleeing of the armored and motorized formations by beginning the formation of pockets in the north and south
This isnt a final picture and the panzer in the south got 1 hex away from sealing the pocket"


[image]local://upfiles/56634/1D1F917F7DCE464B963631A408AA4D2C.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:48:26 AM)

TTG Neutral AAR, Soviet turn 2

The extremely aggressive advance of German armor in their turn 2 offered the Soviets many opportunities to isolate panzer spearheads. This is almost always a good idea because, even if the isolation is purely nominal and can be broken by an advancing Axis infantry unit the first thing the next turn, it cuts off German fuel deliveries in the logistics phase. Therefore, the isolated motorized/armor units will have much less than half their normal movement points for the coming turn. If, best case, the Axis had called for a headquarters buildup for those units, they will not get their extra supply deliveries and the precious AP will be wasted (though not, apparently, the extra trucks an HQBU normally uses up). Headquarters buildup, for those not familiar with the idea, is a method for accelerating supply deliveries that is especially useful for a force advancing rapidly beyond their supply lines like the Germans in summer, 1941. You open the HQ’s detail window by right-clicking on the unit in the right-hand window, then if the HQ is eligible for an HQBU, the choice will appear. Clicking on it will reveal the cost in AP. It can be more than you want to pay – 38 for this armored HQ, for example. Units that have moved more than ¼ of their movement allowance cannot benefit. Getting an HQBU costs the HQ and all subordinate units that benefit all their remaining movement. The following logistics phase, the HQ and all eligible units attached to it when the buildup was done get a super-sized delivery of fuel, ammo, and supplies – if they are not isolated at that time. The distance from railhead to unit determines how many extra vehicles are expended to deliver this bounty. It could be plenty, beware, as the Axis you will run short of vehicles by winter.

As the Soviets during Barbarossa (and Blue in summer 1942, and the Axis later on) you want to keep your eyes open for armored units that don’t appear to have moved very far in the preceding turn. They might be gassing up for a big lunge the following turn. A panzer corps with 50 movement points can go a long way towards isolating whole Soviet armies. Two or three such corps can destabilize an entire front. This is probably the most important offensive weapon on either side, but especially for the Germans early on and the Soviets in 1944-45.



[image]local://upfiles/56634/0CCA7663129F4F8F9539F3E4A28D79DF.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:49:07 AM)

The northern front is not especially in peril thanks to the uncertain advance of Axis units in this region. The stack of headquarters and a couple of NKVD border guard regiments in the vicinity of Riga were able to successfully masquerade as a tough defensive force – even to me as I wrote last Axis turn’s AAR. This led the Axis to lunge to the east and await the arrival of the lagging 18th Army’s infantry to clear the defenders out. The few tough units holding the line north of Polotsk looked somewhat lonely, faced with a whole Panzer Group seemingly ready to move eastwards.

[image]local://upfiles/56634/4B5416A07A5B4FE5A2FEE49952BF7532.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:49:48 AM)

The Soviet response in this region was to rail in three good divisions to actually put a solid defense into Riga, while using the rag-tag forces along the Dvina to isolate 4th Panzer Group. As suggested, this isolation is no threat and can be easily broken by advancing infantry next turn. However, it will impede supply to 4th Pz Grp, meaning that they will have 12-15 movement points instead of 25-30, preventing a lunge eastward towards Velikie Luki until at least next turn. More powerful units moved by rail into the critical zone, while some reshuffling in the Pskov region begins to bring order to the quite normal organizational chaos in that area. Ultimately, Northern Front will hold the Pskov region, retreating to the Plyussa and the Luga if necessary, while Northwestern will hold the rivers and swamps south from there to junction with Reserve/Western Front somewhere north of Vitebsk.

[image]local://upfiles/56634/6BE8423B8FA441EEAC948178F4D317D7.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:50:40 AM)

On army organization: Coherent Front zones are important for air support. The Air Commands assigned to Soviet Fronts provide tactical ground support to units in their Fronts. Fighters can intercept enemy air missions anywhere on the map, and so might operate over hexes containing ground units that are not part of their front. Interdiction missions can similarly take place anywhere. But the way the Soviet Air Force is set up, ground units won’t get much air support in combat unless they are part of a Front and within range of an airbase that is assigned to their Front. Air units can fly via intermediate bases (called staging bases), but this can only lengthen their range by 50%. So, if you have (as the Soviets do in 1941) much of your fighter strength in the form of I-class fighters that only have a range of 10 or 11, the largest space your Front can occupy and still rely on air support is about 15 hexes.

Coherent organization is also important for ground combat. On defense, do your best to ensure that units stacked together are all part of one Army. Try to put units in reserve status behind front-line formations of their own Army. On the offensive, you generally try to have all attackers come from the same formation if possible (same Corps for Axis, Army for Soviets). Of course, for a big attack that won’t be possible, but try to have them from the same Army/Front. The reason is, the farther away in line of command terms units in a combat are, the less effective they will be. The combat results screen will show you the penalty you suffered for confused lines of command; it can go up to 30%.

And finally, you want to have units assigned to the lowest level of headquarters you can, if you are not overloading any headquarters. Units assigned directly to higher headquarters (Soviet units assigned directly to a Front or STAVKA, Axis units assigned to an Army, Army Group, or OKH) are penalized by 10% or more.

Units in an overloaded HQ are penalized by a reduction of their commanders’ chances to make leadership rolls; look at the “supply details” window from the unit detail window to see the chances a unit’s leaders have of making any of the leadership rolls it may encounter. You can mess around with overloading, assigning to higher HQ’s, distance from HQ, and so forth to get a better understanding of the impact of organization on combat effectiveness.


[image]local://upfiles/56634/CC3145029924435B93A39F529ECC3CA8.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:51:53 AM)

In the land bridge region, the Soviet turn began with the discovery of a major pocket along the Berezina and German armor right up against the thin screen of defenders across the land bridge. There was an opportunity to pocket one panzer division and perhaps successfully flee with some of the pocketed forces, while the German ability to drive into the land bridge itself would only be limited by their fuel supplies. German 2nd Panzer Group, having crossed the Berezina at Brobriusk, was showing red fuel (meaning they had expended all or almost all their fuel reserve during the previous turn’s move) but still could be poised to cross the Dnepr in force south of Mogliev.


[image]local://upfiles/56634/4871EA060F6D4B99BD95CCFFB29835DB.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:52:40 AM)

Noteworthy in this area is the near-opening of the first-turn Belarus pockets by a mere security regiment. This is one problem with leaving those pockets unreduced on turn two – somebody might come by and rescue them. Opening a pocket is important because if an HQ is not isolated, it can send all its support units up to higher headquarters, meaning they are rescued. Many of these HQ’s in the first-turn front line positions have very high-quality support units. If they are overrun, the HQ’s will be displaced to friendly territory – many times more than once – and each displacement inflicts casualties on the support units. The units themselves will survive, but often without any of their experienced gun crews or engineer squads. If the Soviets can get them out, it makes their Army HQ’s much more powerful.

[image]local://upfiles/56634/6D82D7FF780F4DD69AD4FBE2CC888B05.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:53:38 AM)

To the south, 1st Panzer Group made a very enthusiastic advance through the giant hole that Southwestern Front’s precipitate retreat had left south of Proskurov. These are the Soviet mobile reserves that are often the target of the first-turn “super-Lvov” operation. We prevented super-Lvov with a house rule on turn one, but the Soviet failure to evacuate these units eastward or support their flanks in their turn one left them vulnerable to a turn two pocket, which the Germans executed with glee. The pocket is not sealed, but if the units are to retreat, they must do so through the swamps. They can’t even be railed out now, since the farthest forward German unit cut the last rail line into the kessel.

[image]local://upfiles/56634/982534CC443D4AE889DD8BE05AB5ACAA.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:55:46 AM)

However, as we can see from a map of the situation farther to the south, the precipitate German advance left pretty much all the Axis mobile force in the sector vulnerable to isolation. Two panzer divisions on the southern encirclement might have been isolated with enough force to prevent subsequent rescue in the coming turn, with German infantry far away and no tanks able to come to their aid. Isolating the leading corps in the northern arm was trivial, requiring one parachute brigade to advance through empty hexes to link up as indicated. Isolation of the southern arm and the remainder of the northern arm could have been accomplished by an advance from both sides into the Proskurov region, if there were no undetected Axis units sealing that area (as in fact, there were not).



[image]local://upfiles/56634/58B58A69677C42E49CCBBFA2A630929C.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:56:47 AM)

Unfortunately, for the Soviets anyway, they declined to take any of these opportunities. A couple of divisions moved in the vicinity of Proskurov but failed to make contact to isolate the armored spearhead. In my opinion, this is a major mistake that probably is more important than the Axis failure to capture Riga on turns one or two. Instead, the Soviets moved their nearly-isolated units out of the pockets without confronting the Germans in any way, even to choke their supply. In the north, the armor retreated towards the swamps, but once again, without any flank protection either between the German spearhead and the Kiev area or on the northern side of the swamps. No Axis player likes to send troops into the swamps, but if they do, they will most likely be able to cut the rail line and prevent any of those fleeing units from escaping.



[image]local://upfiles/56634/F6D1282B01BA46CA980EFF168436D52F.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:57:55 AM)

In the southern Ukraine, Soviet forces tried to establish a picket line along the Yuzhny Bug. Factory evacuation can’t start until next turn, and it is a close race to decide if the industrial resources of central Ukraine will be available to the motherland going forward. The forces from the southern near-pocket moved eastward but are probably going to be pocketed again by the fully-supplied German armor to the north and destroyed turn after next.


[image]local://upfiles/56634/2A5CCAD796CE4D7D8745EF5879F4B10C.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 12:58:23 AM)

Losses this turn were 217,394 Soviet ground (111 air) to 22,619 Axis (41 air). Deployed forces are 3,423,996 Soviet to 3,268,979 German (9183 to 3200 in the air, looks like a lot of Soviet airframes came back from National Reserve).



Fetterkrolle -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 9:52:36 PM)

We were very lucky that they did not go for Riga, so that we could reinforce it just in time.



SparkleyTits -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/25/2019 11:15:39 PM)

Is post 39 supposed to be the same pic as post 19 from the Soviets turn 1?



mrhuggles -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/26/2019 2:30:51 PM)

I hope you show the combat result for the eventual battle of Riga [:)]



Fetterkrolle -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/26/2019 11:00:32 PM)

If he does not show it I will, lets just say it was interesting...



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/27/2019 1:43:21 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: SparkleyTits

Is post 39 supposed to be the same pic as post 19 from the Soviets turn 1?

Thanks, fixed.



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Soviet turn 2 (2/27/2019 1:43:55 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: mrhuggles

I hope you show the combat result for the eventual battle of Riga [:)]

Yes, I've got a whole discussion of how that worked out.



thedoctorking -> TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:16:29 AM)

TTG Neutral AAR, Axis turn 3

Supply difficulties in the north and center slowed the pace of Axis operations this turn, while in the south the failure of the Soviets to cut Axis supply last turn meant that the Soviet mobile forces are now likely to be destroyed. This turn demonstrates the importance of isolating armored spearheads whenever possible, and even if they cannot be isolated, of snuggling up close to them to extend supply paths.

In the north, the Axis turn began with all the armor and motorized divisions of 4th Panzer Group isolated. They had some fuel left over and thus a few movement points, but the highest was 17. The infantry of 16th Army, followed by the reserve corps belonging to 2nd Army, were moving steadily east towards Velikie Luki, while 18th Army was still in central Lithuania, too far from Riga for a deliberate attack. With a turn spent attacking Riga, German infantry now looks to be ready to assault the Soviet main line of resistance around turn 6 or 7 at the earliest.



[image]local://upfiles/56634/6BF46C772B814FA1A8092AB194854E1E.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:17:25 AM)

The Axis turn here was unspectacular. The airbases and rail repair units continued to move east. The infantry advanced, 18th Army to the gates of Riga while 16th and 2nd pushed to the crossings of the Dvina. The armor forces were re-connected, but did not move. Perhaps the Axis is trying to stockpile fuel, but it would have been well to cut the rail line north of Riga to prevent a change of heart on the part of those three divisions in the city.

[image]local://upfiles/56634/EF7F7FEAEF7F4715A2C1DF12C1ACBA1A.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:18:30 AM)

In the land bridge region, the turn began with similarly poor movement allowances for the German armor. The drawback to the rail repair strategy the Axis is using – bringing all three FBD units forward into Lithuania, and then using two units to build the Panevezys – Daugavpils – Polotsk – Velikie Luki line as rapidly as possible – is that units in the land bridge region, and especially at the southern end, have extremely long supply paths. The forward elements of 2nd Panzer Group were in the 40’s at the start of the turn and the 50’s by the end. They started with 10-20 movement points and can expect the same next turn. The Axis is stockpiling AP, presumably in hopes of a multi-corps HQBU on a subsequent turn. But for now, the armor can do nothing until the infantry arrives.



[image]local://upfiles/56634/262F2A4E78DB47A78C2BFFC789B436F4.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:21:16 AM)

And, sure enough, very little was what they did. 4th and 9th Armies marched steadily forward, taking the opportunity to wipe out more of the first turn Belarus pocket as they advanced. The Berezina pocket from last turn was easy to re-establish, this time with a solid double line of regiments holding it closed against any conceivable Soviet counterattack. A motorized brigade ducked south into the swamps, not quite far enough to cut the rail line down there.



[image]local://upfiles/56634/6539C1C5DF81462DBCBD5E78BC394FFB.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:22:18 AM)

Army Group South’s armor was the only truly mobile force this turn. Benefitting from short supply lines supply and no Soviet interdiction, their units averaged movement factors in the 30’s. They were able to cut the rail line leading out of the northern kessel and completely pocket the mobile units attempting to escape in the south. Elements of 1st Panzer Group, supported by a loaner corps from 2nd Pz Gp, fanned out across the Ukrainian steppe, not reaching any of the industrial cities.

[image]local://upfiles/56634/D545178C7C8546168D0FF901D6C55601.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:23:22 AM)

Losses this turn were 20,198 Axis to 327,635 Soviet (49 to 151 in the air). Deployed totals are 3,345,326 German to 3,144,399 Soviet (3,440 to 9,142 in the air). This was a reasonably good turn for the Axis, mostly because of the success in the south. This is when it really begins to pinch for both sides, though.



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:28:18 AM)

Herr General Mrhuggles, AGS Commander, reports:

My third turn involved trapping retreating motorized and tank divisions across the center of my front, as well as preventing rail escape of the trapped units being forced into the swamp in the north
there were two main pincers to the north and south of kiev, facilitating these tasks
the southern pincer also has the benefit of threatening soviet positions on the banks of the yuznhy bug (or whatever its called :smiley: )
With the northern pincer looking as if its designed to trap the forces in the swamp, and the southern pincer poised to charge south, it's hoped that Kiev will not be heavily defended by next turn
its hoped that these pincers can then converge from either side of the soviets before they have time to react
If the soviets end up suspecting such an attack, the threat on the south can be realized


[image]local://upfiles/56634/719B6A682E834C8B94F2CB0179916B08.jpg[/image]



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 2:28:45 AM)

Nothing to see here (Fetterkrolle posts moved to their proper place after Soviet 3)



Fetterkrolle -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 11:51:05 AM)

I like how the AAR is 5 turns behind the actual game. It is nice to look back at the desitions you made earlier and to learn from them



thedoctorking -> RE: TTG multi-player teaching game: Axis turn 3 (3/10/2019 11:12:57 PM)

And we don't want your opponents to learn too much...



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