Role Reversal - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (Full Version)

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Shalkai -> Role Reversal - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 2:22:34 AM)

GamerDad and I have started another game.

Start game 12/20/2019 using WitE ver 1.12.02
Game Settings - full FoW, HQ Lock, non-Random weather, full blizzard, no Soviet CV bonus, Improved+Art1 CV display. 290 VP no sudden.
We’ve switched sides after finishing our last game, and this game has the same settings other than Improved CV displayed instead of Default CV. GamerDad is welcome to visit this thread, as I'll keep the AAR roughly 5 turns behind our current game progress.

My experience with the Soviet side of things is less than with the Axis. This game will see me try to implement and record better tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over the last six months or so, and also help form the basis for a detailed document on how to reorganize and manage the Red Army in my future games.

Turn open (received 12/27) is full of the customary good news. 11 HQs and 36 divisions are already destroyed. An immediate counterattack to throw the invaders back into Prussia is *not* the order given. Instead, the Soviets will fall back (rather swiftly the first three turns, then slowly), contest territory, and try to cut off over-bold panzer advances.

Here's the satellite view of Axis advances at the start of my Soviet T1.




[image]local://upfiles/60274/218D8F8040B3422C88D50A0D7665B97D.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 2:39:01 AM)

Turn 1 part A:

Looking at each Front, here is how things start:
Northwest Front is mangled, and the Germans have taken Riga and the entire Courland coast. Only one isolated RD is left hiding in the woods 50 miles northwest of Sialiaui. Two panzer divisions are across the Daugava around Riga; a couple more are east of Kaunas but didn’t quite reach Daugavpils. Northwest Front HQ was overrun and replacement staff units have to be railed up from the Urals. 1 RD pocketed.

Western Front allowed the Germans to advance up to 200 miles, with panzers adjacent to Minsk and Slutsk along the main rail lines. Both Kaunas and Vilnius have fallen. Any smaller pockets have already been erased. Only one pocket centered on Bialystok remains. Some panzer units and their headquarters are far advanced, right up at the front line, 21 hexes from Axis supply. They won’t be getting much restocked. My side has 7 divisions, 3 HQ, and one air base pocketed.

Southwestern Front has no units pocketed (technically, anyway). Panzers swept south past Lvov and almost made it to Rumania but didn’t quite manage to close the gap. Most of the units near the Carpathians will still be lost, but I should be able to get out the airbases and probably isolate a panzer or two to slow them down a bit. On the SW Front northern wing, Kovno was lost but Rovno is still held. 14 divisions, 5 HQ, and one airbase are in dire straits south of Lvov and west of Chernovtsy.

Southern Front has been activated since the Germans almost reached their positions, so Cherevichenko will prepare for the inevitable Rumanian advance.

Axis Rail Repair made it to 50,44 (towards Riga); 54,49 (southwest of Kaunas); 52,68 (east of Brest); and 50,82 (northwest of Lvov).

Northwest Front, Northwest Air Command, and 26th Army entrain in the Urals and begin moving back west. That uses up about 3k of 17k rail available for unit moves. Looking at Event Log, Rail haul capacity is at 104k free, 207k needed for 50% efficiency, and vehicles are 81k free, 123k needed for 65%. No more moves, even rail, are done right now. Time for massive cleanup and reorganization.

Vehicle Pool: 44k (60k needed). Yuck. Mobilization will give me 90k more total in the next three turns so relief will come soon.
Production screen shows Reserved Rail (for units) at 10%, and I’ll leave it set there for now. I think it’ll need a bump up to 15% or more but let’s see how supply production goes in Turn 2 before I tweak this. Soviet Rail is cut in half during June turns so this may fix itself.
Manpower-3742, Port-156, Railyard-299, Vehicle-150, HInd-236, Oil-128, Fuel-149, Resource-196, Armament-370.

Reorganization is going to be somewhat haphazard. I’ve got a lot of notes about things to check and do, but my Soviet grand scheme is not as refined as my Axis campaign start notes. So I’ll be taking copious notes here not only for this AAR but for my future campaigns as well.

I’ll start at the top. Shaposhnikov isn’t bad as a general, but STAVKA needs a high morale rating leader, and his Admin rating isn’t very useful in the High Command. I want to replace him with Timoshenko, who has a 7 morale rating. Only Zhukov has higher, and there are better things to do with him. That will cost 6 AP. Cherevichenko in Southern Front and Pavlov in Western are other good ones to replace but that may happen for free due to battle losses. I’ll use my AP for reassignments and disbands first, then fix STAVKA at end of turn if I still have 6 AP left.

A couple of HQs have command point problems: SW Front -63, 9th Army (SF) -17, 6th Army (SWF) -11. Unit losses and disbands should fix these, so I won’t spend AP now.

STAVKA and all Front and M.D. HQs are set to 92% ToeM, so they will have over 90% support squads and no penalty. Support levels started as locked but I change STAVKA to 9, Front and Moscow to 4, and other M.D.s to 0 to filter SUs up to the top. Then around turns 2/3/4 I can assign back down and manually lock them again.

All Army HQs are also set to 92% ToeM, and SupL set to 1. Corps HQs get 92%ToeM and SupL 0. Air HQ get 92% ToeM and SupL is left locked. I’ll filter down AA units to the Air Army HQ as they become available. Air Corps HQ will be disbanded later for the most part.

Next I check cities within 5 hexes of the invaders. PVO AA Regiments are sent to the rear - these cost nearly 1000 Arma points if they have to be rebuilt. Each one sent to safety costs an AP. Minsk-2, Drogobych (48,87)-1, Stanislav-1. That’s only 4 AP used, so I can go back and get up to another 20+ PVO AA battalions later if I have the AP.

All air groups under 45 morale are sent to NR, plus low exp, high reserve, and high damaged. All battalions (10 plane) to NR. That only leaves 109 air groups, about 3000 planes, in active air bases.

Air Doctrine %fly 5, GrdSpt 100-100, GrdAtk 100-100, AirAtk 160-120, IntAtk 80-80, CityAtk 200-100, FtrInt 80, NgtInt 40, GS-on, Rcn-off

Let’s look at some unit disbands now, starting with airbases. I like to have about 120 planes/base, and there are just under 8000 undamaged planes. If 2000 of those are in reserve or locked Districts, then I only need about 50 airbases. I have 80, so I can easily disband 15-20, saving thousands of trucks and men. Three that were overrun and recreated in the Urals - 10, 60, and 7 AB - are disbanded. The Naval Air ones start getting whacked - they have too many initials, right? All five bases under Baltic Fleet command have planes moved out and are disbanded. The command itself can’t be disbanded so is moved east and parked. The same is done with Black Sea Fleet Command. That takes care of 12, now for a few more...Looking in Commander Report shows SW Air Cmd. has eleven airbases - about 5 too many. A BAD is removed in Western AC. An IAD in Long Range is cut as well, getting me down to 50 active air bases, and also from 44k to 50k trucks available in vehicle pool.

That leaves me with 27 AP left to use. FortRegions and AT brigades are the least useful. ATbrig at least move and have ZOC so I’ll keep them for a while - um, still need to turn down ToeM on those and other ground units. Forts on the Rumanian border need review. There’s only four of them between Chernovtsy and the mouth of the Danube. They aren’t anything other than speedbumps on Turn 2 so they are all disbanded. At around 2k men, 40 art, 60 AT, and 100 MG each saved for the future, it is worth the AP. I’ll be building some up north in a few turns anyway.

Now to set ground unit ToeM. Security Rgt are set to 55%. FortReg-95%, Airbn-100%, Cav-100%, ATBg75%.
Tank and Mot Divisions get 100% ToeM if Morale 45+, 80% if Morale 35-44, and 60% if under Morale 35 (if they aren’t frozen).
Rifle Div are set to a similar scheme using ToeM 90-75-60%, though a few green divisions with high current Toe are set higher.
For SUs, settings made of TankBn-100, MotorcycleRgt-60, AT-90, AA-90, Art-90, Eng Const Mort Rckt MG 100. Airbase 100

Looking at available SUs, there are about 175 AA in cities (that’ll go down).
HQs have roughly: 45 AA, 125 Art, 2 tank, 25 motorcycle, 90 sapper, 12 construction, 14 mortar, 0 rocket and 0 MG.
That gives me an idea of what I can spread out to HQs when I redistribute SUs. Construction and AT units will be my first build priorities for new SUs. We are not going to build any this turn.

Movement starts with two RifleDiv railed north of Leningrad to make a line at Lake Janissaries (sp) north of Ladoga. The front is only three hexes here, and 6 to 7 RifleDiv can make a stand here, possibly even hold forever if fortification levels can be built up once units unlock. We’ll see how it goes.

Southern Front pulls back from the border, making two screen lines about 3 and 6 hexes to the rear. Most of the Dnestr forts are manned but there are still holes. I considered advancing into the Danube delta to harass the Rumanians but two divisions and two regiments isn’t going to accomplish much. Supply limits will leash Axis advance in a couple of turns so there isn’t much point in throwing away troops now.



[image]local://upfiles/60274/FCAAC762742D45FF8B899194FD5010BC.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 3:27:24 AM)

Soviet Turn 1 part B:

North Caucasus MD moves all its unfrozen units west, including two railed into Crimea to start digging in on the land bridges. This MD/Front will be tasked with defending Crimea and the Black Sea coast just north of the Sea of Azov - all Southern Front assets will be used farther north. I’ll defend Sevastopol when the time comes, just for historical flavor if nothing else, but there is no point garrisoning the city right now.

Southwest Front is in dire straights, but does what it can. The units nearly pocketed south of Lvov can’t move far enough to escape a new pocket next turn, so the ones farthest north reclaim territory, make one spoiling attack, and move towards possible safety and better defensive positions. The blitzing panzer corps is isolated, and most of the hexes south of Lvov are flipped back to Soviet control. Again temporary, but it will make the panzers pay twice the amount of fuel to reclaim them and make a pocket. That will use up all of their pre-invasion overstocks. Six more AP are used to transfer out the PVO AA battalions in Stanislav and Drogobych - they are all overstrength and worth saving. 17 AP left now.

[image]local://upfiles/60274/AC4B4E8D91534E36B111593A19F3574A.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 3:37:37 AM)

Soviet Turn 1 part C:

West of Rovno, the 13th PzD is isolated, bombed, and counterattacked. It holds (of course), taking small losses (ditto), but we’re up to three isolated panzers now. 150 grenadiers and 6 panzers killed is still something. I’ll whittle away panzer strength whenever I can. I end up with a light screen west of Rovno and Tarnopol, a fairly solid line running N-S through those cities, and the next line taking shape along the old border forts behind that. I don’t see any of Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Group units here south of the Pripyat Marshes, and the limited progress made by AGS toward Rovno suggests all of 2nd PzG are up north strengthening the push on Minsk and Smolensk. At the moment I can ID 13th and 14th PzD near Rovno, then 48th PzK with their 11th and 16 PzD down by Stanislav. AGS has about 5 more mechanized units but several are still frozen on Turn 1.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/4D62D1D2E40D4057A1D145023D87A891.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 3:53:48 AM)

Now my attention turns to Western Front. The stuff routed to or starting in the Pripyat Marshes just runs east. Let’s note down the mobile units I can see around Minsk: 14th MotD, 29MotD, 39PzK; 12 PzD, 3rd PzG HQ and air (adjacent to Minsk, 21 hexes from railhead!); six unknown PzD, three unknown MotD, and six mobile somethings - could be HQ or combat unit. German forces are strongly concentrated to blast towards Mogilev and Vitebsk next turn. Hmmm...is it worth it to sacrifice a couple of RD in Minsk and try to exact a price for it? Probably not, the city is only fort level 1.10. Checkerboard screens in the swamps and forests is probably the best way to slow the steamroller.

The units pocketed near Bialystok make a few hopeless attacks. Axis losses are under 100 men, at the cost of 2000+ Soviet casualties. Still, it is a small drain on German manpower and supplies, and I might as well get what little I can from units that will be destroyed next turn. Apparently you can no longer manually relocate HQ units to the rear, whether they are isolated or not. I don’t know if that is new to this beta or has been around for a few versions.

Troops are withdrawn from Minsk. MPs are so low that three divisions can’t even get east across the Berezina river. I do the best I can and make a checkerboard screen that will at least soak up a lot of panzer fuel to get through. His railhead for turn two will allow units to be in supply up to about y=56 column, short of the Dnepr. He may send panzers farther than that to snag a bridgehead, so I rail up one Orel MD unit to defend the east bank of the Dnepr at Orsha. That drains my Rail Cap to 1.2k so I’m going to be legging units up from this point on.

Orel Air Command is moved up west of Bryansk, while the unlocked divisions in this District move forward.
Long Range Air Command starts to deploy to the woods north of Bryansk. Planes use air transfer to save wear and tear, then the empty airbases drive to Bryansk. They will be later set to run night missions, then be used in future turns for harassment night bombing on what looks like a German emphasis on driving to Moscow.

Airborne brigades are the only combat-ready units instructed to move east and avoid combat. They will be used to garrison and fortify rear-area cities for now. I want to try and save them for conversion to Guards Rifle Divisions in 1942. I have 15 paratroop brigades to start; we’ll see how many survive the year.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/D3966ED38F374F359FF403D82E2F2E6D.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 4:42:36 AM)

Northwest Front also withdraws, attempting to build a screen between Polotsk on the Dvina and the key city of Pskov. I’m not going to make a huge effort to hold Pskov - I did look recently at an AAR where that was done, but I don’t believe it is worth the focus. It is too far west and too easy to outflank to try and make the MLD here. Screening and survival is the order of the day. The surviving Northwest air bases relocate behind Velilikie Luki. The end result is pretty weak, but since only two panzers are across the lower Dvina river I think the second line of screens ought to hold.

Units in the Riga islands board ship and move to Oranienbaum. Northern Front doesn’t have much unfrozen yet, only a mech corps around Pskov and a couple units up near Narva. Most of the air can move, and does. The main air command will relocate near Novgorod, and withdraw from there later as needed. 7 IAK PVO Air Corps will remain near Leningrad with fighters to provide some measure of air support against the Finns.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/75960FF9F420476B9D9D952319BA63C3.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 4:50:48 AM)

That takes care of moving units. I still have 16 AP left as I start end of turn checks. Detached HQ warnings in Commander’s Report list over 40 units, but there are few I can do anything about. I do find some air unit and HQ moves that get units back within command radius.

I can afford another 10 AP to save PVO AA Battalions. Retrievals are: 3 from Tarnopol, 1 from Minsk, and 5 from Rovno. Most of them are at 117% Toe strength so that’s a decent amount of guns and men that I’ve saved for later reallocation. Down to 7 AP left now. Reserve/Refit is reviewed, and assorted unready status units are switched to refit. 6 AP spent to replace Shaposhnikov with Voroshilov at STAVKA. Timoshenko is better, but Voroshilov will be less of a loss if he gets a 7.65mm demotion after too many battle losses. The single remaining AP is left to roll over to next turn. None of the remaining fortified regions I might disband is definitely going to be overrun next turn.

Some final checks in Commander Reports remind me to set three Air Transport units in NR to night missions. They will be assigned to VVS bases once experience is high enough for partisan supply duties.

I run down the line, doing a few ground attack missions on German mobile unit spearheads. Results are minimal. Southern Command tries one airfield attack on the Luftwaffe base in Rumania with some success - Soviets lose two fighters and seven bombers, but claim ten Bf109-E destroyed in the air or on the ground. I’m surprised to get a 1:1 loss ratio on a first turn airfield attack.

1/1/20 - turn end saved and sent off to GamerDad. Axis at 151/290 VP

Total losses at end of Soviet Turn 1: Axis 11111 men, 227 gun, 176 afv, 9 spac. Soviet 622449 men, 9390 gun, 3998 afv, 1385 spac
Net loss of about 19000 vehicles this turn: 13.5k lost, 5.5k captured by the invaders.
Air losses: Axis 69 (this turn), 69 Total. Soviet 3395 (this turn), 3394 Total (chuckle). Axis lost 31 fighters, ten of those in my airfield attack.
Important Soviet type losses: 597 MiG-3, 66 Yak, 2 LaGG, 44 SB-2 Rcn, 16 IL-2. All those lost MiG-3 will be missed.
Pool of modern planes: 157 MiG-3, 241 Yak-1, 212 LaGG-3, 46 IL-2, 73 IL-4, 390 SB-2R, 1 Li-2

GamerDad’s first turn killed more men on the ground than I managed while playing the Axis in our first game - 515k vs. 375k men, etc.
Comparing air losses shows the reverse - only 3.2k planes lost to GamerDad, while I think I destroyed 4.3k.

I’m generally content with Turn 1 results. On the bright side, the Soviet Air Force didn’t get hammered quite as badly as it could have been, and the Axis rail repairs seem to be starting on a ‘standard’ plan, with only two FBDs working inside the Baltic Rail Zone. Both of those things could cost the Germans in the long run. Another slight relief is only seeing two panzer divisions over the Dvina river. That should extend the Veli Luki defense by a turn or two. Panzers not quite reaching Rumania was another small plus.

In the bad news folder, my first turn losses were VERY heavy - over 600k after attrition was added in. The new v12.02 HQ shatters definitely change the opening turn casualty counts by quite a bit. 14 artillery and 7 sapper SU lost is a lot of critical men and equipment that will have to be rebuilt.

One possibly bad choice I made was to spend some of my very limited unit rail moves on getting two divisions up to Karelia, and another two to Crimea. Neither place was a critical need this turn. However, it does fill a future need and will also act as a reminder to me about my defensive plans for these areas. Railing up another four units to any point of my porous front would have left it still porous, as well as taken some AP use to reorganize HQ assignments.

Some other choices/risks to review in a month or two: spending so many AP to rescue AA units, not fighting it out for Minsk (it would have soaked up most of the movement from 3-4 mobile units), and sending ⅔ of my planes to National Reserve.

My general goal is to take everything I’ve learned during the first game with GamerDad as well as lessons learned from the last few months of reviewing AARs, then try to do better than my opponent managed as the Soviets in our first game. The vast majority of my reinforcements will be going to defend Moscow, and secondarily Leningrad. I can’t make an unbreakable line anywhere during clear weather without crippling other fronts. Leningrad will probably be lost; holding Moscow would be a major plus but difficult to achieve. Ukraine will get some attention but not much. Supply chains will be my biggest defense there. If I can hold Ryazan-Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad-Rostov by the end of the snow turns I’ll consider that good (slightly better than historical outcome).

I just noticed one small error, an empty Army HQ attached to STAVKA west of Kiev that I wanted to move farther east and south. Not a huge deal, as there are 3 armies arriving T3, and another 4 on T4.




Telemecus -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/24/2020 1:03:51 PM)

Again a lot of kudos for restarting this game from opposite sides. And for writing an aar with these sort of details. I know it is not for everyone, but there are many players, particularly those starting out, who crave to know these details. An AAR like this gives a basis for thinking what they should do, or simply just let them know the details they might want to or should be noticing.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
All Army HQs are also set to 92% ToeM, and SupL set to 1. Corps HQs get 92%ToeM and SupL 0. Air HQ get 92% ToeM and SupL is left locked. I’ll filter down AA units to the Air Army HQ as they become available. Air Corps HQ will be disbanded later for the most part.


I used to be HQs on something over 90% too - but it turns out this is a result of a mistake. It used to be thought that an HQ with at least 90% ToE sufferes no penalties. But this has been confirmed to not be true, and indeed there are penalties from the very first percentage below 100% ToE for an HQ. This is not to say this might be a good idea for HQs in the Soviet army anyway. For example no point building up an HQ which has no units assigned to it, or too many to be effective. Or indeed no point stregthening corps HQs that will disband soon anyway. Just be aware though that an HQ on 92% can be less effective than one at 100%.



TAIL_GUNNER -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/26/2020 10:09:38 PM)

quote:

The new v12.02 HQ shatters definitely change the opening turn casualty counts by quite a bit.


This is nice to see. One of my biggest peeves with this game was the magical warping ability of HQs out of a pocket....with all attached SUs safe and sound.

Might have to fire this baby up again.....it's been at least 5 years.



Ridgeway -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (1/27/2020 6:19:20 PM)

Too late -- I think the latest patch changed it back to the way it was.



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/1/2020 7:02:59 AM)

Yes, according to Morvael's patch notes for 12.03, HQs now retreat instead of sometimes shatter. I'm going to keep an eye out for whether they get out SUs untouched, or if those SUs suffer rout penalties during that escape.


quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus
Again a lot of kudos for restarting this game from opposite sides. And for writing an aar with these sort of details. I know it is not for everyone, but there are many players, particularly those starting out, who crave to know these details. An AAR like this gives a basis for thinking what they should do, or simply just let them know the details they might want to or should be noticing.


Thanks - I've learned a ton about this game from other AARs, from bootcamp all the way up to expert level. I'm trying to show lots of detail so other players can see both where I spend extra hours doing micromanagement, and also get insight and background into my decisions. A little bit of pay-forward, as I wrote at the top of my first AAR. [:)]


quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus
I used to be HQs on something over 90% too - but it turns out this is a result of a mistake. It used to be thought that an HQ with at least 90% ToE sufferes no penalties. But this has been confirmed to not be true, and indeed there are penalties from the very first percentage below 100% ToE for an HQ. This is not to say this might be a good idea for HQs in the Soviet army anyway. For example no point building up an HQ which has no units assigned to it, or too many to be effective. Or indeed no point stregthening corps HQs that will disband soon anyway. Just be aware though that an HQ on 92% can be less effective than one at 100%.
quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
All Army HQs are also set to 92% ToeM, and SupL set to 1. Corps HQs get 92%ToeM and SupL 0. Air HQ get 92% ToeM and SupL is left locked. I’ll filter down AA units to the Air Army HQ as they become available. Air Corps HQ will be disbanded later for the most part.



I ended up changing active HQ settings to 100% on my Turn 5 in this game, ignoring the Corps HQs still left to disband.

I'm waiting on Turn 6, and plan on posting Turn 2 for this AAR this weekend even if next turn doesn't come in. Not much in the way of secrets that can be revealed by showing T2 strategy. [:D]



Telemecus -> RE: Turn 1 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/4/2020 2:37:50 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
I ended up changing active HQ settings to 100% on my Turn 5 in this game, ignoring the Corps HQs still left to disband.


Perhaps front HQs which are overloaded or have a poor leader anyway can be choked too?



Shalkai -> Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 8:11:27 PM)

6Jan2020 - First glance shows doom and gloom, panzers running amok all over creation, so on and so forth.

20-odd units are trapped in several pockets around Lvov and Stanislav. I might be able to open the largest one.
34 units were destroyed during Axis operations.

Northern and Northwestern Fronts have been pushed aside by panzers driving on both Tallinn and Pskov, with the Germans reaching to within 40 miles of both cities this turn. The Panzer Korps heading north to Tallinn has outrun their supply line with 3 of their 4 units.

Western Front was somewhat successful in slowing the German advance with their screens, although Guderian made a strong push just north of the Pripyat Marshes and has crossed the Berezina river with almost two full Panzer Korps. Intelligence reports think that his tanks are low on fuel, and have also outrun their supply columns.

Southwestern Front held their lines from Rovno to Tarnopol, but panzers south of Tarnopol have encircled units as mentioned above. Several Rumanian Corps have partially surrounded the defenders of Chernovtsy.

Southern Front fought only a few battles, and will fall back to the Dnestr River fortifications.

Vehicle Pool: 63k (52k needed). Better - though units still need more than they have. RailCap starts at 14820/72261.
Production screen shows Reserved Rail (for units) at 10%, that is changed to 15% in the Production Screen. There are around 40 Division or Brigade shells arriving, mostly in the Urals, on Turn 3 and I’ll need more rail. Probably way more even than 15% but we’ll see.
Manpower-3624, Port-151, Railyard-297, Vehicle-150, HInd-232, Oil-128, Fuel-149, Resource-196, Armament-366.

Event Log is bland. Only 5 reinforcements mobilized this turn; the flood starts Turn 3. Plenty unfrozen though. 10th Army HQ was overrun and reconstituted back in the Urals. I wish shattered HQs reformed closer to STAVKA. Lots of air units arrived to Reserve. It looks like eight of the air battalion (10 plane) units renamed and upgraded to air regiments (20 plane). Three were BAPs, and were set to auto-auto on upgrades. I don't know if battalions set to no-manual can upgrade to regiments. I will wait and see, then turn back on auto Bomber upgrades if no 10-plane units upgrade in turn 4.

Key stats from EvLog production totals: 91.5k Armaments produced, 1500 vehicles, 262 aircaft, 197k manpower. About 1190k armaments and 380k manpower surplus after replacement phases - this will be much lower after all those empty units arrive next turn. Down at the bottom of Event Log, Resource Status still shows Rail at 50% - 96k free, 189k needed. There were no warnings about factories not getting resources however. 10 partisan battalions formed, and a few supply drops done from airbases.

7Jan2020 - Earlier I turned off auto upgrade on all my air battalions, but I think I’d better put it back on. Not sure if battalions get to regiments otherwise. Hum..I’ll turn the fighter ones on auto, leave the bombers. We’ll see if that setting is relevant.

Battle reports show GamerDad is not using a whole lot of recon - and fighters are escorting his photobombers. No ground attacks or airfield attacks though. Interesting choice of air settings. Air war should be engaging in a couple turns once I get trained air regiments back into action in large numbers. I have quite a pile of decent units in reserve now, maybe 40-50 that are morale45+ and exp50+. Those will get fed in to on-map units near the end of the turn.

There are loads of crappy generals still commanding units, but most of those are in corps which will dissolve fairly soon. I’ll peek at a few key armies while I do moves, but I don’t expect to change many generals in the next couple turns. I still have a lot of fort.region to disband and PVO AA units to pull out. One thing I don’t see is where all the PVO AA I pulled out last turn went. They aren’t in STAVKA. 6th, and 9th armies, and SWFront, are heavily overloaded CP-wise. I’ll see what I can do to lessen that without spending too many AP when I’m working on Ukraine moves.

Axis main-line rail repair progress: 54,40 towards Riga. 59,50 near Vilnius. 55,66 towards Minsk. 51,85 past Lvov. 67,102 Rumania. The Minsk and Lvov conversions support evenly spaced army groups, but don’t push railheads very far east compared to existing paths to the border/rail. Checking main-line rail lets me know that I can trade space in Ukraine as supply limits will slow the Germans soon. I need to be putting probably 60% of my reinforcements in front of Moscow, 30% to defend Leningrad, and the last 10% to Kiev/Donbass. I do want to make a big fight for Odessa but I can do that with existing Southern Front forces.

Each of the five Front Air Commands gets a PVO AA Btn. assigned to it. VVS airbases are assigned 1 transport (if available) and 3 long range DBAD bombers (usually IL-4) to start working on partisan supply missions, along with one fighter for defense.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/117C4F7D3570454A92A16BC227B9F9E0.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 8:20:39 PM)

8Jan2020 At this point I have nearly 200 air units in the national reserve. In previous games I’ve just done a lot of very slow clicking to assign air units from reserve to front line bases. Today I open up the Commander Report export in LibreOffice, hide the non-air unit rows, and do some sorting so I can easily find the best units in each type and send them back to the front. Sorting and filtering takes perhaps ten minutes. Now I can just pick and grab to refill some air bases. Another 10 minutes sorting and hiding, and I’ve got the following air units types I want to reassign: 5 x I-153, 5 x I-153BS, 5 x I-15bis, 20 x I-16 types, 1 x IL-2, 1 x LaGG-3, 6 x MiG-3, 3 x Pe-2, 10 x SB-2, 2 x Rcn, 3 x Su-2. My criteria are: MOR and EXP over 50, ready planes 17+, and low damaged plane count. Green light given to roughly 36 fighters, 10 FB, 5 tac, 15 LB, and 2 recon. Sorted by name and type, so now I go build up some air bases.

Western Air Command gets first pick, and now about 600 planes are in its five unlocked air bases. Northwest AC is next and received level bombers and some fighters to round it out. I continue thru the Air Commands, distributing about 50 of the above listed air groups, setting the BAK command planes and DBAD units in NR to night missions, and generally organizing air. Doing this spreadsheet really helped. It still took me 90 minutes but I was able to visit all air commands and not get bored after tediously clicking to fix up 10-15 airbases like I would have without using Commander Report and the sheet. We’ll have enough to do some light plane attacks this turn, and heavy attacks (both day and night) next turn.

Ground movement started last night with reopening the Lvov pocket. Most of the isolated units temporarily reestablish communications but only a couple have any chance to escape next turn even via routs. Some units trapped in Chernovtsy fiercely counterattack Rumanian brigades trying to surround them and throw them back with moderate casualties. German 16th PzD and 16th MotD are surrounded and cut off by two Tank Divisions a bit north of there. I also manage to extract one more Corps HQ, with four valuable SUs attached.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/D7A4AB32E7F24A1E863D5CC7C8D0B221.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 8:24:34 PM)

SWFt forms a defense in depth, (see above and below) using the old border forts. Fort.regions on the front line are disbanded (3 of them) to save men and guns. Rovno is strongly held and will be difficult to pocket, too.
Units from Kharkov and Orel MD move forward and start to take positions on the Dnepr from Mogilev south. [not pictured, not very interesting]

Southern Front manages to get all but two of their units across the Dnestr this turn, and Odessa defense is taking form.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/961D9B498BF64D3095D07B7C636C4304.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 8:47:48 PM)

WesternFt reorganizes, trying to make three lines on the land bridge. Two rifle divisions (one of them trapped) manage to isolate two panzer divisions. Another panzer is cut off by a bypassed SEC rgt. Hopefully these fuel-starved panzers will be mostly stalled and I can hold Vitebsk another turn or two. I think ten of the 2nd and 3rd PzG panzer/motorized units are now isolated or over 25 hexes from supply. Slowing the panzers down may be my best defense, as even after stripping everything around Moscow and sending it all west the front line isn’t strong enough to hold two kids with slingshots. I don’t expect the Germans to get more than a few hexes past it, but that may be optimistic.

I drew on the map how I moved to achieve the ZOC changes to isolate those three panzers. This example is for new players and shows how units without an escape path can still make themselves very valuable. In this case, one rifle div couldn't get east, and the two security regiments are disposable. So I'm only really risking two more RDs and they will still have a chance to survive via retreat/rout.

[image]local://upfiles/60274/5A1A8B95370244FFB3426240EEE4F1C1.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 8:51:50 PM)

Northwest Front is also very weak, but makes a thin line with a second-line ZOC screen to protect VeliLuki and Pskov. The good news is that most of AGN’s panzers (I can see 4) are headed to Tallinn and Narva, and three of those outran supply. We’ll see how it holds up.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/28665A9C69CF4449B4BEEFAB4CED3EA5.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 9:06:54 PM)

Northern Front is still mostly locked, but has three units digging in near Narva. I leave the naval brigade in place to defend Tallinn, as well as the three PVO AA regiments stationed there. At fort level 3, it might be able to hold off a hasty panzer attack when they are low on fuel and supplies. Note the overextended panzers - in Beta v12.02 any unit over 25 hexes from rail was isolated and got nothin. GamerDad and I played the first five turns under 12.02 and this isolation limit was carefully checked and factored in. The good news for everyone is that this bug was fixed with v12.03 a week or two ago, but even without that bug a panzer unit extended like this at say 29 hexes from rail (5 hexes from its HQ) is only going to get maybe 10-15% of its needs.

[image]local://upfiles/60274/824106481A7B4E6FA8BD8120BCFEF618.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 9:18:05 PM)

In the far north, the two units I railed up are now in position north and south of Lake Jan and starting to dig in. I’ll assign them to 7th Ind. Army when it activates and give that army several sapper/constr units. Hopefully they can dig in and hold the Finns a few turns.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/8D7E53D9D55F4E5CA8062B1C1645C2BE.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 9:21:56 PM)

I added another empty army to Southern Front. This should have been done at the beginning of the turn, so I could unload some CP from 9th Army. Cities were visited and more AA units sent to the rear (about 5). I’ve also toured some of the Army HQ units, added SUs (building mostly Sapper and Const) then locked them. Scrolling around looking for an army HQ, I found a whole Rifle Corps from Orel MD that I need to move up. This will help the Smolensk/Dnepr line. Unit rail move pool now empty.

9Jan2020 I run up and down the line doing a last few tweaks on positions. I’m not happy with the depth of my defenses anywhere north of Mogilev, but that’s unavoidable in the first couple turns. If my forces aren’t pushed back very far next turn that will be more because of panzer supply problems than anything else.

I’ve also brought down SUs to about half the Army HQs, built some more to round them out (mostly sapper and const btns) then locked them once they were stocked. I’ll do more of that in T3. Next I run down the line, now doing Ground Attacks. Not too many bombers are actually ready to fly, but those that are pick on panzers. In later turns I’ll be doing lots more of this, as this is one of the few ways I can cause even light casualties during the summer of ‘41. 30 attacks only cause about 400 Axis casualties, and cost me 50 planes, but gotta start somewhere.

End of turn checks and cleanup are worked on, a few more units moved around, and I’m finally done.



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/12/2020 9:24:46 PM)

Turn 2 Epilogue:

1/9/20 - turn end saved and sent off to GamerDad. Axis at 154/290 VP

Total losses at end of Soviet Turn 2: Axis 25466 men, 356 gun, 322 afv, 25 spac. Soviet 781856 men, 11070 gun, 5294 afv, 1773 spac
Net loss of about 8200 vehicles this turn: 6.3k lost, 2k captured by the invaders, 0.1k seized.
Air losses: Axis 11 (this turn), 80 Total. Soviet 258 (this turn), 3652 Total. 25:1 ratio is not going to cut it, even if many of those were training crashes. Important Soviet type losses: 10 MiG-3, 3 LaGG, 4 SB-2 Rcn, 3 IL-2.
Unit Losses: 1 Army, 3 Corps, 4 TankD, 2 MotD, 6 RifleD, 1 Airbase, 1 Abn Bgd, 1 AT Bgd, 2 SecRgt, 6 Fort.Reg (5 disbanded).

Pool of modern planes: 112 MiG-3, 239 Yak-1, 239 LaGG-3, 24 IL-2, 146 IL-4, 358 SB-2R, 2 Li-2

Overall things are starting well enough. My harassing defense is slowing down the Germans, compared to how things went in our first game. I’ve got most of his panzers spotted, and over half of them are getting zip for supply to start Turn 3. Not much progress has been made toward Kiev so far. In the center, German advance is average or a bit better, and should reach Mogilev and Vitebsk on T3. AGN is ahead of historical, though over half of their panzers are chasing north to Tallinn. That’s much better than Pskov from the Soviet PoV (at least imho).

Using export and spreadsheet really helped get air units moved around. I’ll have to spend another couple hours in Turn 3 moving more ready units back to the front but this has definitely been quicker than my old method of just checking the available units in the ‘assign’ window.



Telemecus -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/13/2020 6:41:57 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
I don't know if battalions set to no-manual can upgrade to regiments. I will wait and see, then turn back on auto Bomber upgrades if no 10-plane units upgrade in turn 4.


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
Earlier I turned off auto upgrade on all my air battalions, but I think I’d better put it back on. Not sure if battalions get to regiments otherwise. Hum..I’ll turn the fighter ones on auto, leave the bombers. We’ll see if that setting is relevant.


I believe their upgrade is hardcoded, although depends on a die roll. So they all will eventually upgrade to regiments, but you cannot hurry it or slow it down with airgroup settings?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
The Minsk and Lvov conversions support evenly spaced army groups, but don’t push railheads very far east compared to existing paths to the border/rail.


I always think this is a mistake. Yes it may help at the beginning. However by concentrating your repair out of Rumania and in the Baltic zone and then repairing towards the centre from them later on you actually get better railheads to the centre than repairing all the time in the centre. And late summer/autumn is when you really want rail heads to be closer for your central forces.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shalkai
Using export and spreadsheet really helped get air units moved around. I’ll have to spend another couple hours in Turn 3 moving more ready units back to the front but this has definitely been quicker than my old method of just checking the available units in the ‘assign’ window.


Also allows more flexibility for slicing and dicing. If you want to select airgroups with multiple criteria like more XP than X, more morale than Y and more ready than Z this is beyong the internals of WitE.



xhoel -> RE: Turn 2 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/14/2020 9:00:42 PM)

Great AAR. You are doing a really good job with harassing/cutting off his panzers. Your opponent should start improving his flank security or should stop being so aggressive which would be good news for you.

Losing a couple of Rifle Divisions to cut off/delay panzers for a week is a great trade off. With the new manpower multipliers and the fixed experience bugs, losing such units should be less devastating.

Looking forward to new updates.



Shalkai -> Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 3:53:53 AM)

Turn 3: 10Jan2020:

Supply woes for the panzers means the Axis made little progress in their Turn 3. Their advances were mostly 3-5 hexes or so, and I lost less than ten units in combat. A total of 13 units are isolated, mostly around Stanislav. In Ukraine, Panzer units have broken down into regiments so there is finally a solid line. I won’t be able to open that Stanislav pocket a third time. Perhaps some supply drops, we’ll see. The advance to Moscow cleaned out my units screening and isolating panzers but didn’t get up to the Vitebsk/Dnepr line. The spearheads toward Leningrad are still short of Pskov and Narva. The PzKorps by Pskov probably did an HQBU, and maybe one of the AGC PzK east of Minsk. I can see most of the AGS panzers and they are low on fuel.

Vehicle Pool: 89k (53k needed), in the green now. RailCap starts at 40011/144808. There’s that 50% penalty in June gone.
40k is probably more than I need for railing units this turn but we’ll see.
Manpower-3532, Port-151, Railyard-296, Vehicle-150, HInd-232, Oil-128, Fuel-149, Resource-196, Armament-366.

Event Log shows 3 Army HQ and about 30 divisions formed up, mostly around Moscow and Leningrad (right where I need them). 7th Ind. Army is unfrozen along with some other units. About 20 air units upgraded to late model planes - yay!. Two more air battalions (10 plane) units renamed and upgraded to air regiments (20 plane).

Key stats from EvLog production totals: 91.5k Armaments produced, 1500 vehicles, 285 aircraft, 193k manpower. About 1125k armaments and 210k manpower surplus after replacement phases, but draining the surplus will continue. Down at the bottom of Event Log, Resource Status now shows Rail at 94% - 193k free, 204k needed. Warning about 24k supplies not being produced. 11 partisan battalions now formed, and 11 supply drops done from VVS airbases.

CR Battles tab shows a light combat turn. 30+ recons, probably one round of auto finding air bases. Axis recon escort still on. 25 ground battles or so with Axis clearing their way forward, and about 10 interdictions by Soviets with few planes flying and minimal results. This makes me curious, so I go and check Air Doctrine - which seems to be back at defaults. Huh? I reset everything:
Air Doctrine %fly 5, GrdSpt 100-100, GrdAtk 100-100, AirAtk 120-120, IntAtk 80-80, CityAtk 200-100, FtrInt 80, NgtInt 40, GS-on, Rcn-off

Axis main-line rail repair progress: 57,34 in Riga. 62,52 SE of Vilnius. 57,65 towards Minsk. 52,87 toward Tarnopol. 68,103 Rumania.

CR Units tab lets me tweak ToeM on new or very low morale/%Toe units. CR HQ tab reminds me to fix 9th Army in SF. I move 8 divisions from 9th to 18th Army and disband a fort.region, 9th Army now fixed. A bit north, I move several divisions from 6th to 5th and 12th Army, which partially fixes the imbalances in SWFront. About 12 AP are used fixing the two armies. The front itself is still 54 CP over limit. About half that number is due to the trapped units near Stanislav.

Air Groups tab shows no one with Fatigue problems. Damaged plane counts are very high but I don’t transfer many back to NR this turn - the switch from 40 to 20 max ready planes just happened. All air units with Exp+Mor<95 are sent to reserve (10 or so total). All bombers in VVS that arrived this turn are set to night missions.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/FCF5AA23BA644CD7ADB4B7024E53CDC7.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 4:14:17 AM)

11Jan2020: I started on unit moves last night, and used up 17k of rail movement getting units from Urals and Caucasus forward. The far north units may have unfrozen according to event log, but I can’t do anything with them. I’ll hit them next turn. I’m going to work on the front lines from south to north. Ukraine has a decent number of units, and panzers are pretty scattered and low on gas, but they are in good supply range.

Southern Front holds at the Dnestr River even though five German ID are close. They will break across a bit north of Kishinev next turn but hopefully the level 2 forts will make it costly and the second defensive line will keep them from getting more than two or three hexes deep. Six decent RD are now in/adjacent to Odessa and the fort levels are rising. We’ll see if I can hold on there for a while once GamerDad arrives.

SWFront is going to pull back 10-30 miles in most places. A couple of air supply drops are made to isolated units in Stanislav, but they aren’t enough to get them out of isolated status.

German Infantry is near Rovno in strength, and Panzers will be able to penetrate and pocket if they concentrate. Rovno itself fell, but at least he had to use panzers and not infantry to do that, and didn't get much further east. A regiment of 13th PzD is counterattacked and pushed back; German losses 250 men and 9 tanks, Soviet 1000 men and 8 tanks. I have two Mech Corps nearby and they are inspired to attack, seeing that panzers can be pushed back if caught working as regiments. An attack on 2/13PzD, then a second attack on 3/13PzD does force them both back, and briefly surrounds most of 4 panzer divisions near Rovno. That’ll be over a third of his AGS mobile divisions getting nothing next turn.

No other Panzer regiments are as exposed, so that’s the limit of my ‘counteroffensive’ in Ukraine this turn. Soviet losses were nearly 100 tanks, but almost all of them were T-26, which are basically just target practice for German AT guns and rifles. I have enough units to make a good multi-line defense about 60 miles deep, though it certainly won’t hold. I just want to hold losses to 30-50 miles. One new rifle division is railed from near Moscow to Kiev so defenses can be built up there.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/A2E64AC752B64568B592EB30277F94FC.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 4:20:55 AM)

Here's a shot of Southern Front. Nothing unusual - line pulled back to Dnestr River forts, working on Odessa defenses, preparing for infantry assault northeast of Kishinev. Southwest Front units can be seen at top, pocketed around Chernovtsy (we'll miss you!) and trying to hold the hills to the east.

[image]local://upfiles/60274/A99B4C993FE74AF0AD139C6D8772E8CD.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 5:01:33 AM)

12Jan2020: Battle reports are checked to see if the night supply drops to partisans faced any Axis fighter intercepts - answer: No.

Next I review defenses and threats on sections of the front line to see how many more divisions might need to be railed up from Leningrad or Moscow. I run some recon flights to get a better idea what is north of the Dvina and moving toward Narva and Pskov. Narva line has three units west of the river, and then two more as a screen behind. They face only 3-4 panzers w/o HQBU and no infantry. Line should not be pushed back much thanks to terrain and low panzer fuel.

Pskov line faces probably 3 panzers and 10 infantry divisions in range to attack. I’m betting this Panzer Korps did an HQBU. About all I can do is reclaim some hexes with units moving forward from their entrenchments (shown in pic below), then they’ll move back to the bunkers.
That will slow down the advancers a little, and the Infantry won’t be able to knock my screen back more than a hex or two. That PzK can break through both my lines so I need a little more depth. Two extra divisions are railed down, which gives me a good shot to hold the city. I may bring in one more after I take a look at other needs. (I did, to start a 3rd line).


[image]local://upfiles/60274/0D012CC284FA4721B59CAA8A33F8B466.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 5:12:05 AM)

Here's the final Pskov/Narva defenses after some units are railed in. The two panzers up near Tallinn are at or past supply so aren't much threat. I think the Pskov defenses are now deep enough to keep those couple panzers from making a pocket. Long-term defense anchors are started by the units moved into Novgorod, and just south of Lake Ilmen. That area will be getting lots of attention in the next five turns or so, as the surest way to take Leningrad is a deep push past Lake Ilmen and up the Volkhov River to Sviritsa. 'Taint easy, though. I plan to make it very, very hard even if AGN gets heavily reinforced.

[image]local://upfiles/60274/A7424EE8ED4D447E95CA954313CB32C2.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 5:17:10 AM)

Vitebsk region faces very strong panzer forces, but they are near their supply limit. A few divisions are railed forward to fill in holes in the first and second lines. I expect the first line will be blasted back, and Vitebsk will probably be lost, but 25-hex limit will restrict how far they can get.

Several divisions are railed forward from the Moscow region to man the Smolensk defense line. I end up using all 40k of the unit rail allotment. 4 fortified regions are built for Leningrad, and five for Moscow, at a cost of 36 AP. 8 AP more are spent building construction battalions to help level up the final defense lines.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/3303AD7B60F74C72A334B9F8185E1BFB.jpg[/image]



Shalkai -> RE: Turn 3 - GamerDad (Axis) vs. Shalkai (Sov) v1.12.0x (2/22/2020 5:27:18 AM)

Screenshot of Middle Dnepr defenses is at end of this post. Lots of panzers west of Mogilev, but again at 20+ hexes from railhead. They'll be able to reach river but I doubt cross it or take Mogilev. Orel and Kharkov MDs are defending this stretch (they only have 36 CP each, half that of a Front until they activate) but it lets me keep Western Front out of CP overload. Western itself still has stragglers trying to get back to mommy from the Pripyat Marshes.

Now, back to spreadsheet wars. I get a bit more organized this turn. There are 102 air regiments in NR, and I sort by type, morale and exp to find ones ready to go back into action. This goes quicker this time, and ten minutes finds all the units I could pull out if needed. Now the air armies are checked and reinforced, Moscow axis first, then Leningrad, then the south.

After the central zone air armies (Western, Orel, Kharkov, Moscow, LongRange) are moved into better positions and brought up to strength, I bomb the forward German units. Ground attack bombings cause light casualties and take light losses. The nearest Luftwaffe airfield has a Stuka wing so I try an airfield attack. That is an unmitigated disaster - I lose 7 MiG and 38 bombers, but down only one LW fighter and don’t even touch the airfield. A night attack is ineffectual as well but at least doesn’t lose any planes. I’ll need to wait for some fighters to get above 60/60 Mor/Exp before trying daytime airbase attacks again.

Since I can’t hurt the dang Stukas, I at least want to know where they are. All four groups of StG77 are in that one airbase I hit, so he may have not split up the ground attack between Army Groups. Another ten recon flights confirms that - all three StG are currently within forty miles of Minsk. Interesting - and this also means the Moscow push has the lion’s share of ground attack power. I’ll need more fighters here to counter them. I up the Air Doctrine settings for intercept to 100 for daytime. That’ll get some more planes up during ground attacks and ground support.

More ground attacks are done by NW, N, S, and SW Fronts with fair to good results. Total casualties for all Ground Attacks was around 600 men, 30 guns. Not much, but I’ll get the air attrition over 1k/turn in only a few more weeks.

Time for turn end work. DtHq listing starts with only 7 units once isolated and frozen are filtered out. 3 I can fix. I’m keeping things organized at least. Reserve and refit is checked and set, then I tour through HQs, pulling down arty (Stavka has a surplus) to armies and a few key corps. When done, 21 of 25 armies have all/most of the SU they need and are locked. I will need about 20 more construction battalions to fill them out.

Top generals not assigned yet: Zhukov, Purkaev, Vatutin, Eremenko, Khozin, Sokolovsky, Timoshenko. My AP are all spent this turn but I’ll start beefing up key armies soon. Factory Evacuation: Mogilev 3 Arm, 3 HI. Kharkov 53 T-34 to Sverdlovsk. Voronezh 2 BM-13, 1 BM-31, 12 IL-2, 1 IL-10 to Ufa. Odessa 1 Arm, 2 HI. I managed to use up 99.9% of my rail cap for both units and factories this turn. :p

That should finish things. I scroll around the map one last time, decide to move up the N. Caucasus Air command a bit, then save and send. That wasn’t bad, a three day turnaround. I should be able to keep it at 2-3 days now that I’m getting on top of the Soviet side playstyle again.


[image]local://upfiles/60274/3801284CA8644566BA7308ED8E29D0B1.jpg[/image]



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