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MikeJ19 -> RE: Road to Moscow - Crossing the Border (5/21/2020 11:53:18 PM)
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AAR
What did I do right?
Initial plan
Taking the time to develop a plan worked well. It helped me focus on the important things – getting East as fast as possible
Flow like water
With the exception of the first days attacks, my units avoided direct combat a lot. Instead, my lead elements flowed around the Soviet units like water flowing down a hill flows around rocks.
Adapting
On D+3, I was thinking that I would avoid MINSK completely. That would have been a disaster. Realizing that MINSK was key to helping my supplies, I switched the plan and attacked MINSK from three directions. There were other times, where I modified my plan responding to the opportunities presented to me. For example, I left a Soviet fort in the South alone for the whole game – attacking it gave me no benefit, so I let it be.
Surround and destroy
I was able to use the mobility of my units to surround the Soviet defenders in many cases. Using HQ units, and other non-manoeuvre units to help encircle Soviet forces made it much easier to destroy them.
Maximizing rounds in a turn
I was able to get four to five rounds of combat in on many turns. This was through careful management of my attacks so that I did not burn through the turn. On a couple of turns, I got more rounds then I could actually use. I did have at least one turn where a fail proficiency check cost me at least one or two rounds of planned attacks.
What could I improve?
Unit Cohesion
Very quickly into the battle I had no idea of where most units and their HQs were. It did not really hurt me in this battle, but it could have. I need to work on this better.
One issue I have always had with TOAW is that the higher level HQs have little effect and it is really hard to see who is in what formation – big picture. I could not tell you where the four different armies ended up. Yes, the two main pushes came from the Pz groups, but mixed in there were units from the other two Armies.
Rail repair
I thought it was a good idea to split up the rail repair units at the outset – bad idea. Instead of getting one line up right away, I was slowly repairing multiple lines. This cost me a lot of supply points as none of the lines were getting repaired. If I had to do it again, I would concentrate on one line in the centre and have all the units working on it.
Last thoughts
This was a great game (Thanks Rob). I was not sure until about turn 9 that I was going to be able to win. It was not until turn 11 that I had a lead.
I have said it a couple of times, but it was an interesting challenge – pushing East fast enough to get to the objectives while destroying lots of Soviet units. I think that some of the Inf Divisions could not have made it to the objectives even if there was no enemy.
I had a blast!
On to SMOLENSK!
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